“. . . most insurance companies have completely abandoned their fiduciary duties to both their insureds and to injured parties. Every single claim is treated as fraudulent. The discretion of the individual insurance adjuster has been largely removed, and they have a rigid set of guidelines set not on the actual injuries, but on a desire to maximize profit.” Randy
A few days ago I discussed the overlap of two bankrupt systems: Healthcare (a.k.a. Sickcare) and our legal system–malpractice. Today we hear from two correspondents on possible fixes to malpractice: Ishabaka (M.D.) and Randy, who combines both legal and medical expertise in his family: he is an attorney and his wife is a physician.
First up: Ishabaka (M.D.), a physician who has practiced medicine in both Canada and the U.S. and served an an emergency room doctor for many years.
My solution would be – first – a no fault system, where anyone who suffers an injury as a result of contact with the health care system is compensated a REASONABLE amount – like the workers compensation system.
One side of the story I didn’t mention is I have seen a case of clear malpractice where the suit was WON by the two doctors who prescribed naproxen to a patient for gout, when it was known he had a giant stomach ulcer. Every third year medical student knows naproxen can cause ulcers to bleed. The man woke up in the middle of the night with a massive bleed from his ulcer, and died. The thing is, there is an alternative treatment for gout – colchicine – that is perfectly safe in stomach ulcer patients, and should have been prescribed.
The second half of the system would be a really good review mechanism – I’d base it on the F.A.A. – that reviews what happened when a patient suffers injury due to contact with the health care system. I think in many instances, it would be found nothing could have helped – people get sick and die. I had a friend give a woman with no history of penicillin allergy a shot of penicillin for gonorrhea and she had a severe allergic reaction and died at age 21 – in spite of textbook treatment for severe drug allergy. Stuff happens. Continue reading →