North Carolina: Posting Malpractice Payout Records Evokes Physician Outcry

It won’t be easy, or popular, for the N.C. Medical Board to post medical malpractice payouts on its Web page, judging from the critics who voiced opposition to the idea during a recent public hearing. The board, charged with licensing and disciplining the 22,000 doctors who practice in North Carolina, has proposed posting all malpractice payments going back seven years as part of a new effort to broaden the kind of information patients can see about the doctors who treat them. About 25 states have adopted similar rules. But the measure has met opposition from doctors and hospitals, the insurers who write their medical malpractice policies and the lawyers who defend them against patient lawsuits. Several of those speaking at the board’s hearing said the rule, particularly if it calls for posting settlements from seven years ago, would be unfair to doctors and patients alike. They contended that many of those settlements involved secret agreements between the parties that were sealed in court. By disclosing the doctor’s settlement, they say, an enterprising Web user could cross-search the doctor’s name against online court documents and find the plaintiff’s name — circumventing the court order. The board will use the comments from its hearing, along with e-mail messages and letters it has collected, to determine how it will publish the malpractice awards. The state legislature last year gave the board the go-ahead to publicly post the payments but left it up to the board to decide what criteria to use. That decision will be made next month.

Please click on the link below to read the News & Observer article:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1126254.html

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Boca Raton Community Hospital Loses $110M, Sheds Positions

Boca Raton Community Hospital suffered a $110 million loss in its fiscal year ended June 30, leading to job and service cuts and the possible end of its affiliation agreement with local universities. In a statement to employees that was distributed to the media on Tuesday, the nonprofit hospital said it has about $180 million in cash and investments on its balance sheet, but would take at least two years to turn around its operations. Of its annual loss, BRCH attributed $60 million to operations, including decreased Medicare reimbursement, trouble with billing and collections, and losses in chemotherapy operations. The other $50 million of its loss came from costs in planning and financing an academic medical center at Florida Atlantic University, which BRCH partners with to train University of Miami medical students. BRCH announced that it would defer building that new hospital “for the foreseeable future” and discuss removing the hospital from its academic affiliation agreement with the universities.

Please click on the link below to read the South Florida Business Journal article:

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2008/06/30/daily15.html?f=et81&ana=e_du

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.