Texas Physicians Urge Governor to Sign Medical Board Changes
Important changes included in the three bills do the following:
• Prohibit the filing of all anonymous complaints;
• Require the board to notify the physician when insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, or third-party administrators file a complaint;
• Increase the time for a physician to respond to a complaint notice from 30 days to 45 days;
• Allow TMB to require a remedial action plan rather than impose a fine for a minor administrative violation;
• Allow physicians to tape the proceedings of a TMB informal settlement conference;
• Institute a seven-year statute of limitations on bringing a disciplinary action, mirroring the TMB rule on how long doctors need to keep a patient’s medical record; and
• Bind TMB to the ruling of an administrative law judge in a proceeding supervised by the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Settlement Credit Calculator
I've developed a spreadsheet to calculate settlement credits and compare the dollar-for-dollar and percentage credits. You can plug in projected credits, verdicts, and percentages of responsibility to see the adjusted amount your client would have to pay under each credit option.
I am having trouble uploading the calculator to the blog right now, but if you would like a copy, just email me at makhan@bostonhughes.com.
Supreme Court rules patient fall in the bathroom is a health care claim; Harris Methodist v. Ollie
The Texas Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion in Harris Methodist Fort Worth v. Ollie today. In this case, Plaintiff Ollie sued the hospital after slipping on a wet bathroom floor during her post-operative stay. She alleged general negligence and medical malpractice, but later amended her petition to omit the medical malpractice claims. When she failed to provide an expert report, the hospital moved for dismissal. The trial court denied the motion and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
The Supreme Court stated that in order to determine if Ollie's was a health care liability claim, it was required to look at the underlying nature of the claim. "Thus, it is the underlying nature of Ollie’s claim that determines whether the claim is for a departure from accepted standards of safety relating to 'an act . . . that should have been performed or furnished by [Harris Methodist] for, to, or on behalf of [Ollie] during [Ollie’s] medical care, treatment, or confinement.'" The claim went to whether the hospital should have provided services to keep her safe during her post-operative stay and was health care liability claim.
See the opinion at Harris Methodist Fort Worth v. Ollie.
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