Fighting Mad Doctors in Pennslyvania organize for protest against malpractice insurance gouging

Politically Active Physicians Association ^ | 4-10-03 | Bones McCoy

[bonesmccoy]

Fighting mad doctors are fed up with Democrats screwing with the lives of the American people. Published on this website are the names and specialties of physicians and surgeons who have been driven from their practices by the abuse of malpractice insurance companies.

Mr. Gephardt and the other DNC Presidential candidates appeared with George Stephanopoulos conducting a panel forum last week. Several of the candidates stated that they wanted to create a new nationalized healthcare system (as if HillaryCare wasn't a failure enough!).

While the DNC candidates promise "free healthcare" to the voters, the reality is that HMO insurance companies that preferentially send money to the DNC and RAT candidates are responsible for needless death and suffering.

Furthermore, the malpractice insurance companies are engaging in illegal conduct and are forcing physicians out of practice (in order to permit control of medical services by DNC aligned HMOs).

Those of you in Pennsylvania need to keep an eye on the "fightingdocs" of Philadelphia who appear to be making an effort to defend quality of care for the American people.

[freesia2]

What makes a doctor "bad"?

That is not up to me do decide, but would be up to the peer review group.

And once they are "weeded out", who will do the work they do now?

Jim, I really don't think there are that many of them, and I hope the work would be done by all the remaining competent docs who no longer felt the need to flee out of state or to retire early.

[freesia2]

Mamzelle, I agree with your points in your post 22 to me and appreciate your input.

[eartotheground]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Philip Gilbert, Executive Vice President
(904) 355-6561
E-mail: evp@dcmsonline.org


The Duval County Medical Society is Shocked at Senate
Judiciary Committee’s Medical Malpractice Reform Package

Jacksonville, FL (April 10, 2003) The Florida Senate’s Judiciary Committee’s medical malpractice reform package has failed the people of Florida, and the Duval County Medical Society expresses shock at the legislators’ apparent lack of understanding and concern regarding Florida’s healthcare crisis.

Instead of focusing on the root causes of the current medical liability crisis, the Senate has elected to toss aside the highly researched and documented findings of the Governor’s Task Force. They have decided to proceed with protecting the interest of a few trial lawyers over the health and welfare needs of the citizens of Florida and those who visit our state, by refusing to address caps on non-economic damages.

The action of the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee will do little to nothing in solving the medical liability crisis, but goes a long way in forcing the medical delivery system in Florida into a “meltdown.”

The Duval County Medical Society will continue to do everything possible to keep our local medical delivery system operating and available to meet the needs of our members’ patients. However we need everyone’s help in contacting each member of the Duval Legislative Delegation. We must demand that the politics stop and the critical health and welfare needs of the people be addressed – immediately.



--- At least 100 surgeons have walked off and the county has declared an emergency. I have started a work slowdown. We need help from FR to publicize our problem with the trial attorneys. Sen Jim King is blocking tort reform legislation either because he has been bought off or the trial lawyers have dirt on him. The sleazebag is vacationing in Italy this week.

[ccmay]

The malpractice insurance companies are engaging in illegal conduct and are forcing physicians out of practice

No-no-no-no-no! Ask any doctor on this list, he will tell you the problem is not insurance companies but filthy greedy scum-sucking lawyers. These vermin are the enemy of civilization and must be destroyed. Tort reform NOW-- drive the lawyer b**tards out of business by the hundreds of thousands, until they are all washing dishes and selling apples on street corners-- and rejoice in the lamentations of their homeless wives and children.

-ccm

[ccmay]

The good doctors don't have lawsuits and their liability insurance is more affordable.

You are a G*d D*****d LIAR and I would be glad to say so to your face. Must be a shill for the ambulance chasing leeches, if not actually one yourself.

-ccm

[ccmay]

Moderator please remove my comment #45. While I vehemently disagree with the assertion that The good doctors don't have lawsuits and their liability insurance is more affordable, I regret turning it into a personal attack.

-ccm

[mo]

You read the above...why would anybody with any brains or options-in other words -the kind of a person you'd want at the other end of the stethoscope- have anything to do with this kind of garbage?.The world being created in the day-to-day practice of medicine, looks from the outside to be pretty crumby.....consequently the types winding up in it are those less capable.

[JusPasenThru]

What a load of crap. The doctors getting screwed are not the incompetent ones; they are the ones whose numbers have been called in the medicolegal lottery.

For your information, everytime, and I mean everytime a medical staff tries to take action against a bad apple, said bad apple promptly hires an attorney and threatens to sue the medical staff into the ground.

I hope you end up in a PA ER. Good luck.

[bonesmccoy]

Health care should not receive the same legal evaluation as product liability.

Medical judgement is risky. Physicians can be wrong, but should not be subjected to financial ruin at the hands of unscrupulous litigation.

You clearly do not understand the differences between fictional views of healthcare and the reality (and limitations) of our relatively poor dataset from which to judge illness and interventions.

[ccmay]

If, through your negligence or through your specific incompetence, someone comes to harm, you would be prosecuted.

Are you crazy? Who would work under such conditions? Would you?

You think we have a medical meltdown now, try getting this passed and see what happens.

We already have laws concerning negligent homicide, assault and battery, sexual harrassment, rape, fraud, etc., which apply to everyone, and cover essentially all truly malicious acts by physicians.

-ccm

[snopercod]

Thanks for the post and good luck with your slowdown.

The news blackout on this subject is simply amazing.

[Jim Noble]

If, through your negligence or through your specific incompetence, someone comes to harm, you would be prosecuted

Watch a lot of television, eh?.

"People" turn into "patients" when they get sick. That means they are already "coming to harm".

Sometimes, the harm can be ameliorated because of what we do. On occasion, it can be eliminated entirely.

However, on occasion, harm continues to the endpoint of a bad outcome, or death, despite what we do. Also, on occasion, our interventions into an unstable and confusing situation makes it worse.

Who on earth would work in this environment under threat of criminal prosecution? You? The doctors on "ER"?

Not me, pal. If you ever get this passed, best of luck when you're sick.

[Mamzelle]

re: Are you crazy? Who would work under such conditions? Would you? )))

You know, this has more appeal than you imagine. Go ahead. Make my day. Show up and handcuff the hospital admin--it'd be real interesting, the process of enforcement. Handcuff the surgeon who failed to save your life.

Put the cop in jail who followed the wrong clue.

And start, by all means, to throw in jail incompetent judges. That's what I'd truly love to see, after having witnessed a particularly venal one at close range.

Oh, and don't forget to jail all the lawyers who lose their cases instead of winning them.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Something drastic needs to be done. I suggest tattooing all lawyers on the left hand with a big "L" on their palm. When they go to get health care the nurses can check to see if the patient is a lawyer. If so, they can choose whether or not they want to treat them.

If the lawyer cannot get medical treatment from a doctor or a hospital, let them go back to their law library and get their fellow lawyers to treat their illness or set their broken bones.

After all, if lawyers want to create a world where none of us can get health care, the least we can do is to return the favor.

[jimkress]

There should be no economic damages.

If malpractice is found, the responsible parties should be liable for all reimbursement costs required to fix the problem. If more punishment is desired then malpractice should be criminalzed and the offender(s) sent to prison.

Of course, the trial lawyers would hate this since they are uninterested in justice. All they want is the big fees. Criminaliztion would eliminate those.

[gas_dr]

BTTT, I am a physician in Florida, and we are currently in meltdown

[Mamzelle]

Jacksonville

[TracyPA]

I saw a local news show on this subject about 2 weeks ago. A 34 year old orthopedic surgeon from Scranton was moving to Wisconsin. He paid $80,000 a year malpractice insurance in PA. He will pay $20,000 a year in Wisconsin, with more coverage. We are losing our young doctors. We will be left with older doctors close to retirement. On a personal note, my young doctor left for Texas 2 years ago.

[Mamzelle]

The docs can move, and maneuver. Have you considered the hospitals? They have to stay where they're planted, and the pressures on them are equal if not greater than those placed on the medical staff. Hospitals often pay the malpractice insurance of technicians and nurses, and must insure the institution, of course. Many malpractice actions against docs also include the hospitals and hospital staff--joint and several liability.

What's happening in northern Fla should be instructive.

[bonesmccoy]

Hey doc,

here's some info from HMO ridden California.

The capitation rates given to doctors are only the tip of the ice berg.

If you compare the RBRVS fee schedule to the reimbursement you get from an HMO, it's a joke. Instead of being paid for your time, you get $20.00 for the entire month. It's a financial disaster to work with an HMO.

However, the bigger issue is the politics behind the risk pool dollars that go to the IPA and to the Hospital.

There appears to be about $100.00 per patient per month that goes to the hospital risk pool.

This is the reason that the hospitals begin to attempt to destroy any independent physicians in the community.

If the hospitals lose control of the physicians in the community, the doctors can choose to realign the hospital risk pool dollars per their design (rather than the manipulations of the hospital executives).

Do you see this type of activity in Florida?