Posts Tagged ‘access to justice’

April4

One of the most dangerous things you’ll ever do

By: Rick Claypool

Chances are, one of the most dangerous things you will ever do is stay overnight at a hospital.

If that sounds alarmist, it’s because the numbers are truly alarming: A recent study of Medicare participants found that, in a single month, one of every 17 hospital patients was injured or killed by a preventable medical error. Many more Americans are hurt by unsafe drugs and medical devices.

Given the staggering injury and death rate, it’s shocking that some members of Congress want to shield from accountability those in the medical field who are responsible for harm.

They’re pushing H.R. 5, and overreaching bill that would immunize practically the entire medical industry from responsibility when their defective products or services hurt people. If it passes, the costs of medical mistakes would shift from the negligent actors to injured patients, their families, and taxpayer-funded health and disability programs.

Only an extremely small number of doctors are responsible for most medical errors. Just 5 percent are responsible for more than half of all medical errors. Those doctors should be held responsible for their actions – not given a free pass. The same goes for drug companies and medical device manufacturers.

Instead of attacking patients’ rights, Congress should focus on improving patient safety and reducing deaths and injuries. H.R. 5 does neither. But Public Citizen’s research has shown that 10 basic safety measures would save, conservatively, $35 billion and 85,000 lives a year.

Urge your representative to oppose H.R. 5.

Posted in: Activism, Consumer Protection, Health, Social Justice0 comments

January25

Cruel bill burdens patients, lets health industry off the hook

By: Christine Hines

We expected this, but it is no less disappointing. Yesterday, House members of Congress submitted a proposal to impose cruel restrictions on medical malpractice victims under the misleading guise of lowering health care costs.

The only result practically ensured from their bill, ironically called the HEALTH Act, is the further devastation of patients who suffer debilitating injuries from medical errors. The bill aims to give a free pass to practically every player in the health industry (physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and nursing homes, to name a few), releasing them of their duty to treat patients with adequate care and respect. Meanwhile, injured patients will lose their ability to hold these powerful groups accountable.

And on top of it all, this bill won’t even lower health care costs. All it would do is shift the burden of paying for medical providers’ bad behavior from the wrongdoers themselves to the patients, their families and taxpayers.

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Posted in: Consumer Protection, Health, Social Justice1 comments

November12

Reducing malpractice means saving money

By: Christine Hines

Today, Public Citizen joined with other consumer advocacy groups in a letter to the debt commission (PDF) condemning a dangerous proposal by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, Co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, to use “comprehensive medical malpractice liability reform to cap non-economic and punitive damages and make other changes in tort law” as a way to reduce the national debt and urging the body to remove it from its final report.

Patients’ legal rights continue to be a scapegoat in the public debate on solutions to the country’s skyrocketing health care costs.  However, the proof is in the pudding. When Public Citizen examined Texas’ experience with strict liability limits (PDF) since their adoption in 2003, we found that injured patients in Texas lost their access to the courts but the restrictions did not translate into health or cost benefits. Instead, the opposite has occurred. In Texas: the uninsured rate has increased, remaining the highest in the country; health insurance cost has more than doubled; spending increases for diagnostic testing (measured by per-patient Medicare reimbursements) have far exceeded the national average; and the cost of diagnostic testing in Texas (measured by per-patient Medicare reimbursements) has grown 50 percent faster than the national average.

Clearly, tort reform will not cut the fat.

To blame high costs on medical malpractice litigation is to ignore the facts. In 2008, the cost of medical malpractice liability fell to less than 0.6 percent of the $2.1 trillion in total nation health care costs as measured in 2006. In fact, there are nearly 10 times as many injuries caused by medical negligence (PDF) as there are malpractice claims.

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Posted in: Consumer Protection, Health1 comments

August9

Hopeful in St. Louis

By: Christine Hines

All around the country, newspapers’ consumer journalists are taking notice and reporting on the injustice of forced arbitration. Most recently, Matthew Hathaway, columnist for the St. Louis-Post Dispatch, posted a short article on the “The Savvy Consumer” blog. While Hathaway reports on the biases and unfairness of the predatory corporate practice, he’s a tad overly optimistic that it may soon come to an end.

As Hathaway noted, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created by the recently passed financial reform law will be authorized to ban or restrict forced arbitration. So will the Securities and Exchange Commission. But here’s what Hathaway leaves out: millions of other consumer contracts exist that fall outside of these agencies’ jurisdictions. The CFPB and SEC can restrict investor-broker contracts and contracts for other financial products as designated under the new law. But they have no authority to restrict or ban forced arbitration in numerous consumer contracts, such as those for employment, nursing homes, cell phones, and home building.

Hathaway guesses that the days of forced arbitration “could be numbered.” His optimism is refreshing. But even with SEC and CFPB’s new authority, we still need Congress to pass the Arbitration Fairness Act to eliminate pre-dispute forced arbitration from all consumer contracts for good.

Christine Hines is the consumer and civil justice counsel for Public Citizen.

Posted in: Consumer Protection, Social Justice0 comments

June11

I wouldn’t sign the document

By: Christine Hines

Yesterday evening I met with a financial advisor from a large financial company. The meeting was going well and I was ready to sign on for much-needed financial advice until we started discussing the agreement.

First, he told me that the agreement was not a contract. I quickly corrected him and explained that they were one and the same. Then I started flipping through the three-page document. Lo and behold, there it was, in bold: an arbitration clause AND a statement claiming that there is no agreement to enter into any class action arbitration.

I explained to him in my excitable way that I wouldn’t sign the document, explained to him what the arbitration clause meant and its impact on consumers. He was shocked. In a very brief moment he removed the professional mask and showed that he was appalled by the provision’s meaning. I told him about the need to support the Arbitration Fairness Act in Congress. He asked if it would eliminate arbitration. I explained that it wouldn’t – but it would make it voluntary, rather than forced.

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Posted in: Consumer Protection, Social Justice4 comments

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