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Litigation: The Founding Fathers envisioned the states as laboratories for ideas and choices. If the administration needs a demonstration project for successful tort reform, it need look no further than Mississippi. When President Obama said during his health care speech to Congress that he would "look into" malpractice reform and support "demonstration projects" at the state level, Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a Republican, responded: "If they want a demonstration project, come down to Mississippi. I'll show you a demonstration project." Mississippi enacted tort reform in 2004, including caps on medical malpractice awards. As a result, the number of medical...

But today, the White House indicated that as a gesture of bipartisanship, President Obama would discuss malpractice reform. “The president is going to talk about the downside of what many doctors have told him is the practicing of defensive medicine, where doctors because they are worried about this order more and more tests in order to make sure that they don't get sued,” Gibbs said on CNN. “That costs our system billions and billions of dollars every year.”

Health Reform: A critically ill premature baby is moved to a U.S hospital to get the treatment she couldn't get in the system we're told we should emulate. Cost-effective care? In Canada, as elsewhere, you get what you pay for.Ava Isabella Stinson was born last Thursday at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Weighing only two pounds, she was born 13 weeks premature and needed some very special care. Unfortunately, there were no open neonatal intensive care beds for her at St. Joseph's — or anywhere else in the entire province of Ontario, it seems.

The United Nations may face earth-shattering medical malpractices lawsuits in the near future. Why? Apparently, evidence, can be proven through a simple Google search, revealing that only one doctor employed at the UN Medical Services Division (MSD) in New York City is licensed to practice medicine in the state of New York. SNIP// Ms. Kane also noted that all staff members of the UN MSD were cleared of any wrongdoing with the exception of an alleged whistleblower who may have released information about criminal activities linked with the narcotics scheme to the public. Kane is quoted in the video as...

Despite a decade of promises, little has been done to fix the problem of preventable medical errors that kill nearly 98,000 people in the United States each year, a consumer group said on Tuesday. Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, said lawmakers largely have failed to enact patient safety reforms recommended by a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine or IOM that found that medical errors cost the United States $17 billion to $29 billion a year.

HARRISBURG — Statewide health care groups are touting new legislation that would allow medical professionals to apologize to patients without triggering a lawsuit based on their statements alone. The measure by state Sen. Pat Vance, R-31, Carlisle, wouldn’t relieve a doctor or hospital and nursing home employees making an apology from liability for a medical error or procedure that doesn’t turn out as anticipated. Proponents believe creating a legal climate where such statements can be made more easily could result in fewer medical malpractice lawsuits and leave patients and their families more satisfied with the health care provided them. The...

Planned Parenthood, First Avenue and Grape Street, San Diego, Saturday, March 7, 2009 Planned Parenthood at First Avenue and Grape Street near downtown San Diego started telling customers last Saturday, February 28, they would not be allowed in if they had leaflets given them by "the protestors." Surprisingly, this did not stop nearly the same number of potential clients getting the "Danger" pamphlet on Saturday, March 7. Most clients seemed willing to roll down their windows as they were turning into the clinic's driveway and accept information about the clinic. By 8 a.m., nearly 10 customers coming in the driveway...

NEW YORK (CBS) ― She was a vibrant young mother who went to a Brooklyn hospital for what she thought was a kidney stone. She wound up leaving without her hands and feet because of what her lawyers call a "medical mistake." Now, Tabitha Mullings is suing. The 32-year-old suffered an infection and ended up a quadriplegic with impaired vision. "Because of this hospital, this emergency room, with back pain and side pain, and she leaves here on a stretcher with no hands and feet and legally blind," said Sanford Rubenstein, Mullings' attorney. It was on Sept. 14 when Mullings...

Six employees at a Bedford County school are doing "ok" after being injected with the wrong medication at a flu clinic. The school nurse at New London Academy was giving teachers and staff their flu shots on Friday. But instead of using the flu vaccine, the nurse accidentally injected six people with insulin.

The state has ordered two Orlando clinics to stop doing abortions indefinitely and suspended the medical license of their owner, Dr. James Pendergraft, on grounds that he illegally performed third-trimester abortions. The restrictions began last week at one Orlando location, and by Wednesday, all five of Pendergraft's offices statewide had been ordered to stop providing abortions.

Every year, malaria kills Africa's children by the million and impoverishes their families. The World Bank, as the world's largest aid agency, made a handsome commitment to combat malaria; but the commitment was only partially honored and the investment was misspent. As 12 academic and think-tank colleagues and I demonstrate in the latest Lancet (25th April "The World Bank, False Financial and Statistical Accounts, and Medical Malpractice in Malaria Treatment"), it's time the Bank's directors stopped throwing good money after bad management and leave the malaria business to more competent agencies. In 1998, the World Bank along with other health...

Man Charged In Fake Flu Shot Case Shots Contain Purified Water POSTED: 4:56 pm CDT October 28, 2005 UPDATED: 5:15 pm CDT October 28, 2005 HOUSTON -- A man was charged Friday, accused of intentionally administering fake flu shots to hundreds of ExxonMobil employees, KPRC Local 2 reported. Iyad Abu El Hawa, 35, is accused of attempting to defraud Medicare by giving fake flu vaccines, according to U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg. Officials said El Hawa substituted a purified form of water for the vaccine. Investigators said the bogus flu shots were given at an ExxonMobil health fair on Oct. 19...

  Home | Previous Page | Source URL: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/sep/05090202.html LifeSiteNews.com Friday September 2, 2005 Abortion Doc Caught Performing Fake Abortion – Victim Goes Public NEW YORK, NY, September 2, 2005, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The national director of Priests for Life, Fr. Frank Pavone, issued a statement today praising the courage of a victim of botched "abortion." Melanie Mills revealed her story on a radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, which was met with a lawsuit from abortionist Yogendra Shaw from the Hope Clinic in Granite City, IL. Ms. Mills had not been given a pregnancy test prior to the abortion,...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version August 29, 2005, 8:03 a.m. "Sorry" Works A prescription for fewer medical-malpractice suits. Across the years and through the morphine, I recall an anesthesiologist explaining how he goofed during major surgery — on me. I was in a dreadful car crash in 1986. While trying to insert a small antibiotic tube near my heart, a Tucson Medical Center anesthetist accidentally slipped and punctured my lung, making it collapse. As I recovered from that morning's incisions, he detailed his mistake and said he was sorry. "I have two questions," I groggily...

Wisconsin's cap of $350,000 on medical malpractice awards for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering is unconstitutional, a split state Supreme Court ruled today. The court ruled 4-3 that the Legislature's rationale for implementing the caps on non-economic damages was too broad and speculative to accept and ruled the law violated the Wisconsin Constitution's equal protection guarantees. The Supreme Court said its decision does not strike down all caps under Wisconsin law in medical malpractice cases. Rather, its decision only applies to those for non-economic damages, awards meant to compensate for mental distress, loss of enjoyment of normal activity,...

REMEMBER ALL that uproar over the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance? The special session of the Maryland General Assembly four months ago? The emergency bill? The tax on HMO premiums to underwrite malpractice insurance costs? The veto and the veto override? Seems like ancient history now. But here's the peculiar thing: The doctors who were desperate for financial relief from those hefty malpractice insurance bills have gotten no help whatsoever from their insurers or the state. And they've been told not to expect any assistance until July 1 at the earliest. Maryland doctors should be furious about this. Consumers,...

The President, whose efforts to change the tort system have been buoyed by successful passage of a class action reform bill, said that becoming a part of the federal government when he was elected made him a convert to the notion of a national medical liability reform law. "When I first got to Washington, I thought that medical liability reform would best be handled at the state level until I realized what the cost was of the defensive practice of medicine, the cost of settling lawsuits, and the rising costs of premiums do to the federal budget," he said. "If...

Speaking before hundreds of doctors and medical workers in a St. Louis suburb last month, President Bush called attention to a neurosurgeon on stage with him in the small auditorium. The doctor, the president said, was paying $265,000 a year in premiums for insurance against malpractice claims. Such high prices, "don't start in an examining room or an operating room," the president declared. "They start in a courtroom." Indeed, at many recent appearances, Mr. Bush has complained about the "skyrocketing" costs of "junk lawsuits" against doctors and hospitals. But for all the worry over higher medical expenses, legal costs do...

...insurers that have raised malpractice premiums in recent years have tended to do so less because of soaring jury awards than because of declining stock market returns ...a troubling, lottery-style arbitrariness in juries' pain-and-suffering awards, whose median has soared from $474,536 in 1996 to more than $1 million Trial lawyers focus on claims with the highest reward potential while ignoring other claims with merit, and they admit they concentrate on states that have no caps on pain-and-suffering damages

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1103138407341 Essentially creating Medical Malpractice courts, though without juries (which would make the whole thing unconstitutional). The problem with Medical Malpractice is twofold. One, the doctor doesn't pay. He pays into liability insurance which is built into the fees they charge. The insurance company decides their rates based on future projections of what they'll have to pay out. Both the doctor and insurance company stay profitable, and the entire balance of whatever money that is paid on this (rightly or wrongly) is paid by everyone who receives medical care. These lawsuits are built into the rising medical costs we keep...

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has drafted legislation aimed at averting a financial crisis for Maryland doctors who will soon face their second double-digit increase in malpractice insurance rates. Ehrlich (R) put the finishing touches on the bill during a 20-hour flight home from China on Friday and delivered a copy late yesterday to House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel). The governor's proposal caps off a summer-long campaign for malpractice reform and sets the stage for a possible special legislative session on the politically charged issue. The governor called his approach a "compromise plan" but said he was uncertain...

2005 should be the year long-awaited and much-needed lawsuit reform happens. It's well-documented that lawsuit abuse costs Americans dearly. Tort costs in 2002, the most recent year available, were $233 billion. That is equivalent to the gross domestic products of Albania, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, Luxembourg and New Zealand, combined! Reforming our nation's lawsuit friendly courts and reining in trial lawyers is more than just saving money for a bunch of insurance companies. Our litigious society has made the price of doing business - just about any business - much more expensive. And those costs are passed on to you. Consider...

The Emperor Has No Clothes By: Brian Tracy John Kerry is neither a “war hero” nor a “patriot.” It is about time that someone pointed out that “the emperor has no clothes” and that Americans are being presented with a false choice. If you read the newspapers long enough, a series of facts emerge that appear undeniable and irrefutable. But no one seems to want to “connect the dots” for fear of offending the powers that be in the national media, such as CBS. Here is what we know. First of all, Kerry did not “volunteer” for service in Vietnam....

The shortage of flu vaccine is a tragic thing when we remember that last year twelve children died from the flu. This shortage is a direct result of the policies of Hillary Clinton. In 1993 Hillary Clinton's "Vaccines for Children Program" was first implemented and the government became the majority buyer of vaccines; so far so good. But what happened next is what is typical of socialized medicine. The government set prices so low that vaccine makers had no incentive to develop and produce vaccines. Instead of having a competitive, free market of vaccine manufacturing we had a mass exodus...

Can someone explain to me, how medical malpractice awards affect health care insurance rates? If doctors pay the premiums for liability insurance and the malpractice awards come from these pools then how does this relate to rising premiums in health care insurance when these premiums are paid by those receiving the services? Or are they not related at all and rising premiums in health care coverage is solely due to improvement in technology and the total number of coverable procedures? If so then tort reform directed at the liabilty side will do nothing to impede rising health care premiums. What...

Medical malpractice is number cause of death in America NOT car accidents, or heart disease, or slips and falls, this is well known published stat; its is I repeat again medical malpractice. When doctors in hospitals are negligent IT IS because they have TOO MANY PATIENTS in order to make more bucks in order to pay their malpractice insurance WELL HERE IS THE ULTIMATE RESOLUTION or at least lets start here first; NOW they want to puts lawsuit caps on the victims of these professional murderers who have the American Medical Association, biggest scam in the world, supporting this and...

"Linking complications during childbirth to cerebral palsy became a specialty for Mr. Edwards. In the courtroom, he was known to dramatize the events at birth by speaking to jurors as if he were the unborn baby, begging for help, begging to be let out of the womb."

Many Doubt Democrats' White House Ticket Will Push to Curb Costly Malpractice Suits ... For years, Senate Democrats have thwarted Republican efforts to curb medical-malpractice awards, which is the top legislative priority of the American Medical Association and several other medical associations. Overhauling medical-malpractice laws also is backed by the business community as an opening move toward overall "tort reform" to limit big damage awards in nonmedical suits as well. President Bush strongly favors the efforts. ... [T]he ads contended that "Kerry and Edwards care more about lawyers' wealth than patients' health." The group said the ads cost $300,000. Other...

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney criticized the Democratic ticket on Monday, arguing that John Kerry and John Edwards have opposed changes to the medical malpractice insurance system because they are too close to trial lawyers.During a question-and-answer session with Bush-Cheney backers, the vice president said the administration is pushing to cap the amounts from large court judgments for what he called "non-economic suffering." "Both Senators Edwards and Kerry have consistently voted against medical liability reform. They don't want to see reform of that system. I think it's because, frankly, they are too close to the plaintiff's attorneys...

Cheney Slams Dem. Ticket on Malpractice Monday July 19, 2004 11:46 PM By SCOTT CHARTON Associated Press Writer COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney criticized the Democratic ticket on Monday, arguing that John Kerry and John Edwards have opposed changes to the medical malpractice insurance system because they are too close to trial lawyers. During a question-and-answer session with Bush-Cheney backers, the vice president said the administration is pushing to cap the amounts from large court judgments for what he called ``non-economic suffering.'' ``Both Sens. Edwards and Kerry have consistently voted against medical liability reform. They don't want...

What does John Edwards add to the Democratic Party ticket? The Kerry campaign is trying its best to spin the selection of wealthy trial lawyer John Edwards for VP by portraying Edwards as the son of a textile mill worker, a regular guy who can relate to the South and middle America. This is not the whole truth, and it is not surprising considering the source: two lawyers well-versed in skewing arguments. In actuality, Edwards’ father became a supervisor at the mill and later formed his own consulting business. Edwards’ mother managed and owned a furniture refinishing antique shop...

The long-running battle over the high cost of malpractice insurance has taken an ugly turn. Many doctors blame trial lawyers and their malpractice suits for causing huge jumps in insurance premiums. Lawyers blame it on the insurance industry. A South Carolina surgeon dropped a patient when he found out her husband was a trial lawyer. In New Hampshire, a neurosurgeon told the head of the state's trial lawyers that he wouldn't treat him for non-emergencies. A plastic surgeon in Mississippi refused to treat the daughter of a state lawmaker because of his stand on malpractice suits. At this week's meeting...

ERIE, PA – Today, Peter Lund, vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and past president of the Erie County Medical Society, issued the following statement addressing John Kerry's record of opposition to medical malpractice liability reform: "Pennsylvania voters have a clear choice this November. President Bush has said that no patient has ever been cured by a frivolous lawsuit, but John Kerry has opposed or voted to block medical malpractice liability reforms at least ten times. "President Bush understands that medical malpractice liability reform means greater access to affordable health care for more Americans. Kerry would rather keep the...

Dr. Greg Nayden still chafes at the memory of a call from his brother, informing him that a highly critical Dallas newspaper story posted on the Internet told how Nayden had made $1.2 million in just two years by diagnosing every person he saw with asbestos-related lung disease. That's one of the many reasons, Nayden said, that he now wishes he'd never worked for American Medical Testing Inc., a now-defunct Mobile firm. "I've been made out to be a real crooked, unscrupulous doctor," Nayden said during one of several telephone interviews while spending a short vacation in Fort Morgan. In...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans are trying for a third time to persuade Democrats to curb medical malpractice lawsuits and help alleviate what proponents of limits call a health care crisis. "The ultimate victims are the patients who see their access to care, to that obstetricians, to that emergency room, to that trauma center, threatened and in some cases, that access totally disappearing," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Tuesday as the Senate prepared for another vote on medical malpractice legislation. Republicans on Wednesday will try to overcome a Democratic blockade on the medical malpractice legislation. Senate Republicans and...

Yesterday, Pennsylvania's medical malpractice crisis hit home. My wife is due with our second child in May. She had a prenatal visit with her OB yesterday. Her OB is leaving the state after April 30. This doctor (a woman) has been with five different insurance companies, all of whom have stopped doing business in PA. The remaining insurance companies all want something like $30K up front plus $90K per year. She's been in practice for 30 years, and now she is in danger of foreclosure on her house, late on IRS payments, pulling $100K out of her retirement (the 20%...

State Lawmakers are set to act on the controversial issue of Medical Malpractice reform. A much-anticipated debate is scheduled Tuesday in the State Senate -- on whether to limit the amount of money juries can award for pain and suffering in liability lawsuits. The issue pits Physicians against Lawyers... and Republicans against Democrats. It's been propelled by the complaints of Doctors -- who say the jury awards are causing their insurance rates to skyrocket -- and driving their colleagues to practice in other states. State Senator Jake Coreman of the 34th District says, "Right now we only have 3 Orthopedic...

"Analyzating" Bush's Grey Matter Fri Mar 12, 8:10 AM ET Ever wonder why President Bush () says "nuculer" when he means "nuclear" or "subliminate" when he means "subliminal?" Or why he mixes up perseverance and preservation? Why does he mangle the English language often enough for Slate Editor Jacob Weisberg to produce three books of Bushisms such as "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." Related Quotes   Are you still puzzled that Bush: -- Was a "C" student and class clown, yet became President? -- Doles out odd nicknames with abandon? -- Has...

<p>WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans say they will keep making Democrats vote on a bill curbing medical malpractice lawsuits, despite losing another attempt to get the legislation out of the Senate and to the White House.</p> <p>"We'll come back to it," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., after losing a vote to force Democrats to consider a bill curbing medical malpractice damages (search) against obstetricians and gynecologists. "The problem is not going to go away."</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans say they will keep making Democrats vote on a bill curbing medical malpractice lawsuits, despite losing another attempt to get the legislation out of the Senate and to the White House. "We'll come back to it," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., after losing a vote to force Democrats to consider a bill curbing medical malpractice damages against obstetricians and gynecologists. "The problem is not going to go away." President Bush and the Republicans have argued that medical malpractice legislation could help reduce unnecessary lawsuits that make it harder for doctors to practice. In...

<p>Legislation to limit lawsuits against doctors who deliver babies is expected to fail a key vote in the Senate today, but Republicans will continue pushing what they view as both good policy and a winning issue this election year.</p> <p>Republicans say the measure, which would limit the amount of awards in lawsuits against obstetricians and gynecologists, is sorely needed because the skyrocketing cost of malpractice insurance is forcing such doctors out of business.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans are planning a fresh effort to limit medical malpractice awards, focusing on doctors who stop delivering babies because of soaring insurance bills. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is considering forcing a vote on legislation that would cap awards only for obstetricians and gynecologists just after the Senate returns from recess on Feb. 23, an aide said Thursday. Democrats last year blocked a bill that would have limited damages across a range of cases. Frist said recently a broad bill would again be defeated. "I will use whatever creative strategic things I can to pass legislation....

Remarks by the President on Medical Liability Baptist Health Medical Center Little Rock, Arkansas 11:14 A.M. CST THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thanks for coming. Thanks for having me. Thanks for the warm welcome. I appreciate the fact that a Texan is being treated so well here in Arkansas. (Laughter.) It's nice to be -- it's nice to be in this part of the world again. Arkansas is full of really good people, decent, caring people. And so is this hospital. I'm honored that you would have allowed me and my rather significant entourage -- (laughter) -- to come to Baptist...

<p>When it comes to keeping the doctor away, an apple a day is no match for the tort bar. At the Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock Monday, President Bush complained about junk lawsuits that "drive up premiums" and "cause docs to practice medicine in an expensive way in order to protect themselves in the courthouse."</p>

President Bush is trying to resuscitate a measure to place nationwide caps on medical malpractice awards, a move he has made a centerpiece of his election-year focus on health care. Bush argues that a nationwide ceiling would drive down soaring health care costs and save taxpayers money. Senate Democrats stalled the bill last year, arguing it would help the insurance industry, not patients. In response, the president was issuing a new appeal for the legislation Monday in Little Rock, Ark. With 43 million Americans uninsured, Bush included in his State of the Union address a five-pillared strategy for confronting the...

MONTREAL (CP) - A children's hospital has received nearly 4,000 calls after it asked 2,614 patients to be tested for HIV because a surgeon had contracted the virus, the hospital said Friday. Ste-Justine's Children's Hospital had received 3,900 calls as of lunchtime Friday after announcing Thursday the infected doctor performed surgery between 1990 and 2003 at the hospital, a spokeswoman said. She said parents who have received registered letters telling them their child was operated on by the surgeon are calling for information. Other parents whose children have had surgery and can't remember the name of the doctor who performed...

A TRIAL LAWYER A DAY KEEPS DOCTORS AWAY Geoffrey Becker, Former Florida Speaker's Statement on Edwards in Florida TALLAHASSEE – Senator John Edwards, a former trial attorney and anti-tort reform champion, is campaigning in south Florida today and facing harsh criticism from doctors over skyrocketing medical malpractice premiums. "Senator Edwards and the trial attorney lobby he champions have turned the medical field into something of a lawsuit lottery where a few patients and their lawyers receive astronomical awards while others suffer by losing access to care," said former Florida Speaker of the House, John Thrasher . "It is a real...

<p>Anyone who thinks a single Senator doesn't matter should take a look at yesterday's failed attempt to limit runaway class-action lawsuits. Fifty-nine Senators voted in favor of going to a floor vote on the measure, one vote short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.</p>

The recently printed letter of Marc C. Bendo, Esquire requires a response. In a torrent of words, Mr. Bendo, a trial attorney specializing in medical malpractice lawsuits, attempts to make five points. While the doctors say 'tis and the trial lawyers say t'aint, I have no dog in this fight and will provide statistics and let the reader judge the facts. Incidentally, these facts and statistics can be found in my recently published book Lawyers, Judge and Journalists, The Corrupt and the Corruptors. Sample chapters can be read at www.surrickbook.com The points and the responses follow: 1. "The reason for...

<p>Farmers Insurance Group said Wednesday that it will stop selling medical malpractice insurance, narrowing an already tight market for physicians in some of the 18 states that it served.</p> <p>Farmers Insurance has "suffered significant underwriting losses" recently and plans to refocus on its core lines of home, business, auto and life insurance, said Michelle Levy, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based insurance group.</p>