Posted on 01/01/2003 6:49:29 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
WEIRTON, W.Va. (AP) - As he stood in a hallway at Weirton Medical Center, Dr. Jayapal Reddy was undecided about whether he would join a mass walkout to protest skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance premiums. But if he does join dozens of fellow surgeons in a strike starting Wednesday, he said it won't be because he is greedy. Reddy, who drives a Subaru with 110,000 miles, said with the rising insurance costs, he must earn $250,000 before seeing $1 in profit.
Reddy is one of dozens of surgeons at four northern West Virginia hospitals who may stop reporting for duty, forcing most elective and trauma surgeries to be diverted to hospitals in Ohio, Pennsylvania or Morgantown. Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, surgeons around the state backed off their threat to close their practices Wednesday just hours before they were scheduled to walk off the job. Strike plans were canceled after Gov.-elect Ed Rendell promised to fight for $220 million in aid for doctors this year. The aid offer is tentative one.
Rendell, a Democrat, doesn't take office for another three weeks and even though he still must persuade a Republican-controlled Legislature to accept his plan, there were signs that the offer had averted a large-scale work stoppage. "We are going to go back to work," said Margo Opsasnick, chief executive at Delta Medix, one of several Scranton surgical groups that had planned to close Jan. 1 because of high insurance costs.
"We are going to take Mr. Rendell's offer as one of good faith, and keep seeing patients," she said Tuesday. Other physician groups around the state followed suit. Scranton's biggest hospital, Community Medical Center, notified state officials Tuesday that its neurosurgeons had also agreed to keep working, avoiding a planned closure of northeast Pennsylvania's only trauma center. "It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders," said hospital spokeswoman Jane Gaul.
No such relief came to surgeons in West Virginia. They said they wanted lawmakers to get their message that the state has created a hostile working environment, and doctors are ready to leave. "I'm under contractual obligation to this hospital until September," Reddy said. "I'm already looking around." Dr. Jeffrey Wilps and other surgeons met for more than an hour Tuesday with state insurance officials and concluded, "there's no quick fix to this." "They're just trying to pacify the physicians now. They don't realize it's come to an acute crisis situation," Wilps said. "West Virginia is chasing the doctors - and the businesses in general - out of the state."
Insurance and Retirement Services Director Tom Susman said he tried to head off the strike but found surgeons reluctant to wait for legislative solutions. He returned to Charleston to help the administration finalize contingency plans, which could include rotating doctors from other parts of the state. Lawmakers convene Jan. 8 in Charleston, but surgeons in Weirton said Susman asked them to postpone their walkout until Feb. 1, a delay several found unacceptable. "If we stay silent until Feb. 1, and nothing happens, then they pass us by for another year," said Dr. Samuel Licata, who plans to join the walkout by taking a leave of absence beginning Jan. 6.
Licata, a board-certified general surgeon for seven years, has seen his annual premiums soar from $18,000 to $58,000 without a single lawsuit filed against him. He said surgeons have three critical needs: affordable malpractice insurance; laws that make it harder to sue and cap damage awards; and a reduction in the provider tax, which charges doctors 2 percent of their gross income. "People don't understand. Yes, doctors do make a lot of money. But this isn't about us trying to make more money," Licata said. "It's about trying to keep our heads above water."
Referring to those who do things like trying sue planned parenthood without making absolutely sure they have valid legal grounds ( see this post) and the legal know how to back it up.
The system has some powerful built in protections in the form of annoyed judges.
Amen, brother. Amen.
the parking lot of my docs reveals mb's, bmw's, and lexus'.
discussions reveal that their kids go to harvard, mit, stanford...etc.
when i was in the hospital one doctor charged my insurance at the rate of $1,000 per hour. my insurance company did not pay it. i got stuck with it.
ten days for pneumonia, $40,000. the insurance co left me stuck with $33,000 and a bad credit record.
a century ago medical doctors were integrated into the communities in which they lived; they made house calls.
today, medical school is regarded as a ticket to riches.
That'd be Amen, sister, Amen! :)
The point being, the privilege you cite of the judge to zap the plaintiff's atty with costs and expenses when the defendant prevails is neither readily, customarily or commonly used. The plaintiff's atty feels no fear; all he has to lose is his time. The defendant *always* loses, even when he emerges victorious. That is what needs to be corrected. At the very least, a civil case should have a level playing field.
In family court, the losing plaintiff frequently ends up paying defense expenses, and in contract disputes. In tort case, loser pays? Not unless the plaintiff's atty also ends up in jail!
This absolutely terrifies the plaintiff's bar--that they might actually have to enter a courtroom on an equal footing with a defendant. It takes the extort out of torts...
You have to keep in mind that so many are lawyers by default...they get a useless undergrad degree they can't market, and the next step has to be law school. If you have a C average in basketweaving, there is some law school, somewhere, that'll take you in. Once they pass the bar, they don't have to go back and take any more schooling. Nurses, teachers, accountants...must school their whole lives.
Lawyers seem smarter than they are because they have carefully jimmied the system (through electing lawyer legislatures) to serve their advantage, not through some brilliance of intellect. Gabble a little legalbabble, and they can convince you of their wizardry--
You've killed your goose. Eggs they are a dwindlin'. But, here's some comfort...those car accidents may offer a better payout for the lawyers now that there are fewer surgeons to sew people back together again. You'll have to follow the ambulances for longer distances, however. Funny how it never occurs to lawyers that someone they love (making some dangerous assumptions here) might need lacerations sutured by willing hands. And I have read a few here encouraging a mass lawyer-shoot some Thanksgiving.
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