Texas Supreme Court Agrees That Compounding Pharmacy Is “Health Care Provider.”

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Appellate Law, Damages, Health Law, Litigation, Negligence, Texas Supreme Court

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Compounding Pharmacy, Health Care Provider, Health Law, Implied Warranty, Texas Medical Liability Act

Texas Supreme Court Holds That Compounding Pharmacies Are Health Care Providers Under Texas Medical Liability Act, by Elinor H. Murarova, Duane Morris Health Law Blog

http://tinyurl.com/k75hx7m

On April 24, 2015, the Texas Supreme Court dismissed claims against a compounding pharmacy and its individual pharmacists which alleged negligence in compounding a lipoic acid medication, finding that the defendants were health care providers entitled to the protections in the Texas Medical Liability Act (‘TMLA’).

In the case Randol Mill Pharmacy et al. v. Miller et al., Case No. 13-1014 (Tex. Sup. Ct.), the plaintiff’s physician prescribed and administered weekly intravenous injections of 200 mg/ml lipoic acid, an antioxidant supplement. The plaintiff alleged that she underwent nine weeks of treatment without incident, but in the tenth treatment she suffered a severe adverse reaction and as a result was hospitalized for several weeks, received multiple blood transfusions, and went permanently blind in both eyes. Randol Mill Pharmacy compounded the lipoic acid that allegedly caused the adverse reaction.

In her complaint against the compounding pharmacy and its individual pharmacists, the plaintiff alleged that these defendants gave inadequate and inappropriate warnings and instructions for using the compounded lipoid acid; that the compounded lipoid acid was defective, ineffective and unreasonably dangerous; and that the compounding pharmacy and pharmacists generally breached implied warranties with respect to the design, manufacture, inspection, marketing, and/or distribution of the compounded lipoid acid. . . .

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Kentucky’s Bill To Prevent “Frivolous” Nursing Home And Other Medical Abuse Claims, But Is That The Problem?

21 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Elder Abuse, Elder Law, Health Law, Health Reform, Litigation, Medical Malpractice, Negligence, Nursing Home Abuse, Personal Injury, Skilled Nursing Facilities, Wrongful Death

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Elder Abuse, Frivolous Litigation, Health Care Provider, Kentucky, Medical Malpractice, Nursing Homes

Senate OKs Bill For Review Panels In Medical Lawsuits After Lively Debate Between Doctors, Lawyers, Others, by Melissa Patrick, Kentucky Health News

http://kyhealthnews.blogspot.com/2015/02/senate-committee-oks-bill-for-review.html

The Senate has approved a bill that advocates say will help weed out ‘frivolous’ medical malpractice lawsuits and speed up litigation for legitimate suits.

‘Right now, Kentucky has one of the nations most litigation-friendly environments, making our commonwealth a prime and profitable target for personal injury lawyers preying upon our health care providers,’ Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, a physician and sponsor of Senate Bill 6, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. Opponents disputed that claim.

The Senate passed the bill Thursday 24-12. It is not expected to pass the House.

The bill would establish panels of three medical experts, two chosen by each side and the third chosen by the other two, to review suits against health-care providers to determine if the case has merit before the lawsuit can proceed. Panel findings would be admissible in court but not legally binding.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed a very similar bill last year but it got nowhere in the Democrat-controlled House, and its prospects are similar this time. However, Wednesday’s committee meeting provided a detailed and lively explication of the issue, lasing almost two hours.

Vanessa Cantley, a Louisville personal injury attorney, told the committee that most medical malpractice cases are legitimate. She cited a Harvard University study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that concluded ‘portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown’ and reported that 97 percent of claims for medical injury evaluated over a decade were deemed to be meritorious.

However, Michael Sutton of Louisville, a civil defense attorney, said defendants win 80 per cent of medical malpractice suits.

Cantley said there are 2,700 deaths in Kentucky each year due to purely preventable medical error, but, according to the state Department of Insurance, fewer than 500 lawsuits a year are filed by abuse and neglect victims. . . .

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Keeping Medical Records Costs Down.

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in HITECH Act, Litigation, Medical Records, Motor Vehicle, Negligence, Personal Injury, Product Liability, Torts, Wrongful Death

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Doctors, Health Care Provider, Hospitals, Litigation and Trial Blog, Max Kennerly, Medical Records, Patient's Rights

Defeating The Medical Records Paper Copy Scam, by Max Kennerly, Esq., Litigation and Trial Blog (with hat tip to Evan Schaeffer, The Trial Practice Tips Blog!)

http://tinyurl.com/mmpm4sy

Mr. Kennerly explains why obtaining medical records need not be expensive, and provides a sample letter with citation to legal authority. -CCE

Hardly a day goes by without a letter from my office either requesting medical records or paying for them. Some days, I sign more than a dozen. It’s perhaps the most common thread among all my cases: the vast majority of my clients have been physically injured in one way or another, and at a bare minimum, I need the records from their doctors and hospitals to show the diagnoses they have and the treatment they have received.

Every patient has a right to receive their medical records, and by law should be able to obtain those records promptly at no markup, with no padded fees, and no unnecessary charges from the hospital or the records company. But if there’s money to be made, someone will try to make it, and over the past decade a whole cottage industry has developed around the “business” of trying to cheat patients trying to get their medical records. Sometimes health care providers outsource this ‘business’ to third-party companies, and sometimes the hospitals and health systems play the con game themselves. . . .