Posted on 08/09/2005 7:01:52 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
A congressional committee has asked more than a dozen doctors and screening companies to turn over information regarding their involvement in hundreds of silicosis lawsuits that are at the center of court proceedings in U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack's Corpus Christi courtroom.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, Ky., chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee, sent letters to 12 doctors last week asking them to explain how a diagnosis of silicosis is made, the number of people they have diagnosed with the disease and the number of patients they have diagnosed as not having the disease.
The committee also asked how many patients the screening companies previously had diagnosed with asbestosis, a similar lung disease that rarely occurs in conjunction with silicosis.
"This is often a first step for the committee in gathering information," said committee spokesman Terry Lane.
Lane said the committee has not scheduled a formal hearing on the matter and characterized the call for records as a fact-finding mission focused mainly on the doctors. He said their involvement in the case raised questions about their medical practices.
Silicosis is a chronic and potentially fatal lung disease caused by exposure to silica dust, a byproduct of sandblasting, concrete demolition and the production of paint and fiberglass. The disease can be diagnosed through the use of lung X-rays, a physical examination and a review of a patient's work history.
Nearly 10,000 people have filed lawsuits against manufacturing and industrial companies claiming to have been injured by exposure to the dust. Nearly all of them were diagnosed by the same handful of doctors.
The cases come from eight states but have been consolidated for pretrial purposes in Jack's court.
The congressional committee took up the silicosis issue in response to Jack issuing a 249-page ruling last month saying, in part, that the lawsuits appeared to be more about making money than seeking justice for injured workers. The ruling followed a three-day hearing in February, during which defense attorneys systematically attacked the thoroughness of the doctors' work and the legal context in which they determined the workers were sick.
"These diagnoses were about litigation rather than health care," Jack wrote.
Dr. Todd Coulter, a Mississippi physician named in the committee's action, said he had not received notification for records.
"You've got to be kidding me," he said when told of the committee's action. "You're telling me something I don't know anything about."
A status conference is scheduled for Aug. 22 to settle a matter over how much the plaintiffs' attorney will pay to offset the cost of the February hearing.
Meanwhile, a federal grand jury in Manhattan is looking into the possibility of criminal misconduct. During the February hearing, Jack said some of the doctors' testimony raised "great red flags of fraud."
Contact Neal Falgoust at 886-4334 or HYPERLINK mailto:falgoustn@caller.com falgoustn@caller.com
Fraud?? What Fraud??
"..... patients they have diagnosed as not having the disease."
I hope the committee request wasn't phrased this way. If so every patient they have without the disease would qualify.
Great work if you can get it (and stay out of jail).
Tort Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
My cousin showed me a great article about this in the Wall Street Journal. Part of it is quoted here:
http://cgood.org/society-newscommentary-inthenews-245.html
Unbelievable
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