Wyoming: Medical Review Panel Has Modest Impact

Medical review panels, created to weed out frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits, have had a modest impact on claims filed through the end of 2007, a report says. Of the 89 claims filed since the panel went into effect on July 1, 2005, 24 were either withdrawn or dismissed, settled or partially dismissed, or a lawsuit was filed but it was settled before trial. Overall, the panel has had an impact on 26 percent of the claims. “I’d say that I think the program has helped to some extent,” said Eric Easton of the attorney general’s office, who administers the panels. “There are certainly some cases we can point to and say that going through the process led to the early compromise of a claim, or dismissal of a claim,” he added.
But there are a lot of claims that have gone through the process but were waived before a hearing and either ended up in District Court or some other settlement. Because many of these cases are complicated, Easton said, it is difficult to say if going through a hearing would have kept them out of court. “I certainly feel that in a lot of those cases the process has helped settle cases ahead of time and reduced costs and kept them out of court,” Easton said. “That’s a good thing, and so we’re accomplishing something,” he added. It has been a bit of a surprise, he said, that so many health care providers — physicians, nurses, dentists and hospitals — waived the panel hearing process, which now is voluntary. It is up to the Legislature, Easton said, to decide if this is enough or if the law should be changed to make panel participation mandatory.
In 32 of the 89 cases, the health care provider failed to answer the claim or waived the panel. In 34 cases, the claimant and the health care provider jointly waived the panel. In six cases, the claimant dismissed the claim.

Please click on the link below to read the Casper-Star Tribune article:

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2008/07/15/news/wyoming/d5f826ac6baff028872574870002d989.txt

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.

Maine: Panel to Examine High Emergency Room Use

With hospital emergency room use in Maine significantly higher than the national average, the state is planning to commission a study to determine why. A special task force is expected to meet today for the first time to begin planning the details of the study. A description of the problem developed for the study shows that Maine’s rate of emergency department use per 1,000 residents increased by nearly 20 percent between 1999 and 2005. Emergency department use in Maine was 27 percent above the national average in 1999 and is now 43 percent higher than the national average. Trish Riley, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance, said in an interview Tuesday that inappropriate and unnecessary use of emergency room services drives up health care spending in Maine and may reflect less-than-optimal health care from primary care providers. The study is intended to identify problems within the health care system that drive people to seek routine medical care in emergency departments, she said. The new study will analyze emergency department use at all Maine hospitals and by all patients, regardless of who pays — or doesn’t pay — the bill. Data will be drawn from a statewide hospital reporting database, which collects information that has been stripped of patient identification. Riley said the study is likely to have implications for hospitals and primary care providers. While there is no question that Maine’s largest emergency departments are overwhelmed with patients seeking care, she said, many of those patients could have avoided a medical crisis if they had gotten better health care from their regular providers or if they had access to non emergency care and advice during nighttime hours.

Please click on the link below to read the Bangor Daily News article:

http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=167202&zoneid=500

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.