Posted on 08/02/2004 6:57:12 AM PDT by FormerACLUmember
After 27 years of practicing medicine in Robeson County, Carolyn McCormick has been victimized by an epidemic no pill or potion can cure.
Rising malpractice insurance rates forced McCormick, 57, into early retirement Wednesday.
And when she closed her Elm Street office, thousands of patients - she's not sure exactly how many - lost not only a trusted physician, but a friend as well.
"So many of my patients have come in crying, in total disbelief that this is happening," said McCormick, whose office employed two people besides herself. "They tell me that they'll never find another doctor who listens to them like I do. I have patients who have been with me for 25 years. It's so sad."
McCormick shares not only the pain of her patients, but also their disbelief. She had heard for years that rising malpractice rates were hitting doctors across the nation and forcing them into early retirement, but she had always thought it affected only physicians practicing in high-risk fields such as surgery and obstetrics - not family practitioners.
"I found out two months ago my insurance rates were going up from about $8,000 to about $19,000," McCormick said. "I can't afford that. And then, the insurance company came back and told me they were dropping me from coverage because of a lawsuit from six years ago. I couldn't believe it."
The lawsuit came from an "unattached" patient - a patient she treated while working at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in 1997. According to McCormick, the 60-year-old patient was suffering from a serious bowel condition that was made worse because she was a smoker who was in poor health otherwise. The patient died about two weeks after McCormick saw her, and the patient's daughter sued both McCormick and the surgeon who had operated on her.
The daughter won a $100,000 judgment against McCormick for pain and suffering from her mother's death. The money was paid by McCormick's insurance company.
"I didn't think something that happened six years ago could affect me," McCormick said. "I've known a number of doctors who have been sued several times and they didn't lose their insurance or have their rates go up like this."
Decreasing Medicare reimbursements have also hurt the financial health of the practice. Many of McCormick's patients are elderly.
She also has perhaps the most diverse patient listing in the county.
"I came to North Carolina and Robeson County specifically because I wanted to help American Indians," said McCormick, a native of Iowa who attended medical school at the University of Iowa. "My patients are about 30 percent white, 30 percent black and 30 percent Lumbee. That's part of the appeal of my job - working with all these diverse people."
McCormick has provided her patients with a list of physicians who are still taking new patients, but she expressed disappointment in the small number of doctors on the list.
"When I told a group of local doctors about my predicament, not one offered to take any of my patients," McCormick said. "And Southeastern Regional didn't provide a list. I had to go out and find these doctors myself."
McCormick said she expected more from a profession that's in this predicament together.
Although she's retiring for now and closing down her practice, she said she hasn't given up on her lifelong dream of practicing medicine; she might moved to another state with lower malpractice rates.
"I can start over and get insured and get a lower rate somewhere else, but I don't want to leave," McCormick said. "My daughter is a senior at Lumberton Senior and I don't want to move her.
"It's just a tragedy all the way around," she said as she wiped tears from her eyes. "I had been telling my patients that I like practicing medicine so much that I would do it for at least another 10 years. I'm too young to retire - I have so much more to offer."
McCormick said she doesn't blame any one entity or factor for her forced early retirement. Instead of pointing a finger at trial lawyers and the ballooning malpractice settlements as other doctors have done, she "points four," not only at the lawyers, but at the government, insurance industry, and even her own field of medicine.
And she offers a warning that she won't be the last doctor in Robeson County this happens to.
"Everybody needs to open their eyes and realize this can happen to their family doctor," McCormick said. "These rising rates are going to make it harder and harder to find quality care. I don't know what the solution is, but I do know something needs to be done before it's too late. Obviously, it's too late for me."
According to published reports, Edwards received $4.65 million from 3,220 lawyers, 29 paralegals, 17 legal assistants and 555 people with the same address as a personal injury attorney contributor (such as a spouse or close relative). The $4.65 million represents 63% of the total money raised by Edwards. Over one-third of those contributors gave the maximum $2,000..
His biggest contributors include patron, friend, campaign finance director, and asbestos-litigator extraordinaire Fred Baron, Silicon Valley litigator William Lerach (see also this), and the mysterious Stephen Bing.
He also has close ties to the law firms Girardi and Keese and Chitwood and Harley. And that's just the tip of the special interest iceberg.
Other tidbits from the EdwardsWatch site include the discount air travel Edwards gets from his trial lawyer friends and the money he's gotten from every state trial lawyers association in the country. Has there ever been a candidate so beholden to one special interest?
See www.OverLawyered.com
Not to far down the road, finding a doctor to deliver a baby is going to be a very difficult task.
Someone estimated the Breck Girl had clipped the OB/GYN community for $150 million and had put $50 million in his own pocket. Thanks John...
bump
Some women Las Vegas are having to drive 100 miles to St. George, Utah to find an OB. The democrats and their shysters are anti-family, since it costs $15,000- $25,000 for a delivery in many parts of the US.
Las Vegas was the town he turned the job down in!
Oh yeah, good plan, screw the people who expect to get paid for services rendered. Tell you what, next time I need some work done, how about I hire you, and then refuse to pay you?
It is quite obvious doctors have been used as a cash cow for trial lawyers for years. The only way to alleviate the problem is to reign in the trial lawyers.
The malpractice epidemic along with the "uninsured" chant will lead us into Hillary's Health Care. Then where will the Canadians go.
I believe this is the same Lumberton that was the setting for the film "Blue Velvet": "At the sound of the falling tree, it's three o'clock. Keep choppin' that wood and have a good day!" Or something like that . . .
And the trial lawyers buy commercial time offering to shake down anyone or any company that you may have an ax to grind.
"The malpractice epidemic along with the "uninsured" chant will lead us into Hillary's Health Care. Then where will the Canadians go."
Typical mob tactic. Make it impossible to do business until you do it "our way".
The last time I was in my doctors office I noiticed a paper on the door which stated he did not carry malpractice insurance. I think it must have been a state requirement (Florida) that he post the sign.
Trial lawyers are just part of the problem.
OBs will not accept you as a new patient unless the delivery is paid for in advance or pre-approved by insurance.
I believe the rat party's trial lawyer contingent and the Hillary wing of the rat party are in criminal conspiracy.
First the shysters destroy access to health care and drive doctors out of high risk medicine (OB, trauma care, neurosurgery).
THEN ride into town as the "saviors" with a completely socialized system. This is the very definition of "Chutzpah."
Best comment of the thread! Amen!
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