Gallagher : Malpractice Insurance Blog

The Doctors Company On Defending Against Malpractice Allegations in Highly Publicized Cases

The media and general public often empathize with the patient when allegations of malpractice are raised. For a physician, this predisposition can be terrifying because it automatically paints the doctor as at fault, even when best practices were clearly followed. This video, presented by The Doctors Company (TDC), discusses the malpractice suit leveled against a physician in Texas involving a patient who overdosed on prescription drugs shortly after being treated.

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Further discussion on the effects of damage caps on malpractice claims in Florida

In my last blog post, I took a look at how the passage of tort reform in Florida has changed the number of paid claims for physicians in the state. In summary, analyzing the data provided by the National Practitioners Data Bank (NPDB) showed a clear decline in the number of paid claims against physicians in Florida. The information provided by the NPDB is some of the most comprehensive data we have on claims; however, the state of Florida also tracks malpractice claims and it would only be fair to review this data too. In the decision to overturn the cap on death cases, Justice Lewis references data from the annual report on medical malpractice closed claims and rate filings from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

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The Data Behind Florida’s Supreme Court Decision

This will be the first installment in a series of blog posts that focus on state caps on malpractice insurance payments and the corresponding data. This is a hot topic in the industry right now, as the Florida Supreme Court recently overturned the cap in that state and there is a push to overturn MICRA in California, which has been used as the model in many other states, including Texas. This discussion will focus on Florida, since it is the most recent development; I will discuss other states in future posts. If there is a specific state that interests you, please email me and I’ll see if I can work it in to this series.

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What can a medical practice learn from a data breach at Target?

I received two emails today from the Chase Bank fraud department stating that my credit card information may at risk due to Target’s data security breach. Not that I shop at Target all that much, but if I had been there even once between November 27 and December 15 my card information could be at risk. So much for being proactive and not waiting until the last minute to buy a few Christmas gifts. The good news is that there is nothing to show that my data has been compromised and they are sending me new cards; however, that also means that I have to change all of my auto-pay bills that are set up on that specific credit card… which is essentially every recurring bill that I have.

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