Valleywide Legal Blog
Defensive Medicine is a Fraud.
Defensive medicine is the name doctors give to the tests or treatment they admit are unnecessary but they order anyway out of what they claim is fear of being sued for malpractice. It is an unethical fraud and the doctors … Read More
Posted in Cancer, Defensive Medicine, Doctors, Fee for Service, Fraud, health, Health Care Costs, Health Insurers, Hospitals, Infection, Lawsuits, Malpractice caps, Medical Costs, medical ethics, Medical Malpractice, Misdiagnosis, tort reform | Hospital Pricing is Crazy and Unfair
If you want an example of why we in the United States pay more per capita for health care than anyone else but don’t get much for our money, look no further than the data being reluctantly released by hospitals … Read More
Many Hospitals Prey On Their Patients
Last week’s New York Times ran an article about how rich hospitals profit from their patient’s car accidents. The article showed how hospitals take advantage of old lien laws enacted to ensure patients received treatment in the days before widespread … Read More
Posted in Fee for Service, Fraud, Health Care Costs, Health Insurers, Hospitals, Insurance Law, Lawsuits, Medical Costs, medical ethics, Medicare, plaintiff | Hospital Pricing Is Broken.
A recent study by the RAND Corporation discovered that hospitals across the United States charge private health insurers far more than they charge Medicare for the same services. The amount by which hospital bills exceed what they are paid by … Read More
The Electronic Medical Record.
One of the requirements of federal law is that hospital records be recorded electronically. The requirement for electronic medical records (“EMR”) has a number of justifications, including portability. Patients are entitled to have a copy of their medical records. When … Read More
Posted in Doctors, electronic medical records, Health Care Costs, Hospitals, Lawsuits, medical charts, Medical Costs, medical errors, Medical Malpractice, medical malpractice lawyers, medical mistakes, Medication Errors, Nurses, Prescription Errors | How Much Longer Can Fee For Service Last?
I recently read a post by a representative of the American College of Cardiology which discussed the origin of the fee for service model and its pernicious effects on the delivery of health care in the United States. Fee for … Read More
Posted in Defensive Medicine, Doctors, Fee for Service, health, Health Care Costs, Health Insurers, healthy living, Hospitals, Medical Costs, medical ethics, Medicare, Rationing | Hospital Greed in the Era of Covid.
It is late May 2020 in the Imperial Valley of California. The sun is high and hot. Temperatures exceed 110 degrees. The Novel Coronavirus is also running hot. The only two hospitals in the entire Imperial Valley are swamped with … Read More
The Pre-Existing Condition
For quite a few years now, we have been bombarded with references to “pre-existing conditions.” All politicians seem to promise that they will protect the voters from losing coverage for pre-existing conditions. A review of the record and of the … Read More
Drug Prices
We are in election season and there is much talk about the high price of prescription drugs and promises by politicians to do something about it. Don’t hold your breath. Drug prices are like the weather: Everyone complains about it … Read More
Hospital Ratings Can Be Misleading.
When it comes to hospital ratings, don’t believe everything you read. While I am a big proponent of doing some research about hospitals before being admitted to see if this is a place I want to go, not all hospital … Read More
