Insurance Claims And Issues

The Expense of Medical Malpractice: Insurance, Lawsuits, and Pain.

     Reportedly, South Florida has the most expensive Medical Malpractice Insurance Premiums in the nation.  Many consequences or effects are explored in companion articles by Bob LaMendola, "South Florida Malpractice Victims Have Fewer Options" (South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com, Sunday, July 27, 2008) and  Bob LaMendola, "Uninsured Doctors on the Rise in South Florida" (South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com, Sunday, July 27, 2008).  This fact contributes to a decrease in the number of lawsuits filed in Florida over Medical Malpractice, and Judgments in them.  Other factors contribute as well. The linked newspaper reports mention several events making contributions to those outcomes, including these:

     1.  High Medical Malpractice Insurance Premiums mean that more doctors elect not to pay for such Insurance, or to pay for a lesser limit of Coverage. 

     2.  Florida law provides now that if one Defendant cannot pay the entire Judgment then there is much less of a chance of prevailing on a "joint and several liability" theory to try to force other Defendants to pay the entire Judgment.

    3.  The Florida Supreme Court held recently that Hospitals "cannot be sued for failing to make doctors carry insurance." 

Here  is a chart provided by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel to illustrate "South Florida Medical Malpractice Insurance Premiums".

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Ms. LaCoste's Louisiana Hospital Admission on August 28, 2005.

    August 28, 2005 was the day before Hurricane Katrina struck.   Ms. Althea LaCoste was admitted to the hospital in New Orleans that day.  The next day,  Katrina struck, the lights went out, and all electrical power including the emergency power went off of the machines that sustained Ms. LaCoste's life.  She passed away, still in the hospital.  The legal representative of her Estate (among other persons) sued the hospital for the loss of emergency electrical power and for not having an evacuation plan.

     The Defendant contended that it was really being accused of medical malpractice.  The Hospital alleged that the Plaintiffs sued it over decisions which affected patient care.  Thus, the Defendant Hospital argued, the claims against it should be routed through state review panels before any Trials are set, if Trials take place at all depending on the results of the review process.

    On Wednesday, September 5, 2007, the Louisiana Supreme Court held that these claims will not be required to languish in the system of state medical malpractice review, nor will they be subjected to the Louisiana $500,000.00 limit on medical malpractice awards, in  Stephen B. LaCoste v. Pendleton Methodist Hospital, L.L.C. (La. Case Nos. 2007.CC.0008, 2007.0016, Opinion Filed September 5, 2007).  The decision that the claims described above are not "medical malpractice claims" was by a vote of 4 to 3.  It is the law of Louisiana.  (As a Judge of the so-called lower courts in Florida once said to another Florida lawyer, "I am duty-bound to follow the decision of the Supreme Court whether it is decided by a vote of 4 to 3, or 7 to 0.")

    So many Hurricane Katrina Insurance Coverage Cases are decided in the  Federal Courts.  In the LaCoste case, a State Supreme Court has had its say.

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