Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

A legislator in Florida has proposed immunity for doctors who treat Florida Medicaid patients. Under this utterly warped plan, doctors would be given immunity as agents of the state which would cap their liability at $200,000 in Medicaid cases.

Tort reform advocates love the idea of immunities and heightened negligence standards. There is no question that this will do nothing for Medicaid. In fact, it kills their ability to find the culpable party and maintain its subrogation interests. But tort reform advocates just love immunities. Why? The more practice legislatures have changing fundamental negligence law, the easier the glove with fit next time around. Once immunities start getting added to the mix, we roll down the slippery slope of all sorts of other types of malpractice cases. Let's add immunity for ER doctors or OB/GYNS.

Trying to hide this effort under the guise of protecting Medicaid is genius politically. But it is intellectually dishonest.

This is another "anywhere else than Maryland" wrongful death nursing home verdict. A jury in Kentucky awarded $42.75 million to a 92 year-old man's family who claimed neglect during a nine day stay at a nursing home, saying the home's neglect led to the man's death, according to court documents.

Put this in context. In Maryland, the maximum recovery in this case - excluding any medical bills - would have been $812,500.

There has been a settlement in the St. Joseph's stent case. No not those cases. This settlement was for the not so unrelated lawsuit by the federal government for the kickbacks given for referrals from MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates. St. Joseph was accused of making payments to Mid-Atlantic for referrals for cardiac procedures, most notably, stents.

How many people were privy to this scheme? We are talking about a nonprofit hospital here. Why is a nonprofit - basically a public owned business - willing to risk its reputation by engaging in an illegal scheme to get more patients? On its face, it seems crazy.

Nonprofit or not, most hospital executives have a vested interest is a big and "profitable" hospital. It means more prestige and, not so parenthetically, more money for everyone involved in the hospital. The added perks and future job opportunities don't hurt the motivation to get bigger and better. Notwithstanding the nonprofit veil that most Maryland hospitals have, there is an economic motivation that guides, to varying degrees by hospital and administrator, their decision making process.

WBAL provides more details and the District Court of Maryland says it will continue to seal the Complaint in the case to help the government continue its case against non-settling defendants.

A Baltimore City jury last week awarded $4.1 million for a birth injury to a now 8-year-old boy. Plaintiff's lawsuit claimed the child's cerebral palsy was caused by negligence before and during delivery of the child at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

This is a big verdict, much of it in economic damages. If it stands, the award will be reduced to $3.6 million after the cap on noneconomic damages.

Congratulations to plaintiff's malpractice lawyer Keith Foreman, a former student of mine at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

The Maryland Daily Record provides more details.

Good doctors commit malpractice less often than bad doctors. But sometimes, very meritorious medical malpractice lawsuits in Maryland are brought against very good doctors who made a very unfortunate mistake.

In Florida last week, an appeals court affirmed a $2.15 million verdict that has ballooned to $4.3 million because the case is 17 years old. The verdict was against a hip specialist who has operated on the likes of New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler, golfer Greg Norman, hockey star Mario Lemieux and Olympic skater Tara Lipinski. Pretty impressive group.

But in this case, a young woman cannot walk without a cane because the doctor gouged the smooth lining of her hip joint trying to repair an injury in 1997.

That's right. 1997. The girl was 17 at the time. Ten years later, a Broward County jury awarded the woman $2.15 million after a 2007 trial. The doctor lost on appeal and the Florida Supreme Court ended the 13-year-old lawsuit last week when it refused to consider the appeal.

This case underscores for medical malpractice lawyers that sometimes there are meritorious claims against the best doctors (just like there are sometimes claims against the best lawyers).