Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A BONANZA OF MALPRACTICE LITIGATION IS IN THE OFFING

STATE SENATE BILLS 491, 492, AND 493 ARE BILATERAL TRIPLE MALPRACTICE BONANZAS FOR TRIAL LAWYERS -- ON BOTH SIDES.

Senator Ed Hernandez's bills to promote expanded scope of practice for nurses, optometrists, and pharmacists,  scheduled for hearing on April 22nd, got pulled from committee just hours before the hearing.

In our previous post on this topic we pointed out, as did others, that these bills lower the level of education and training for healthcare professionals especially with reference to  differential diagnosis and selection of diagnostic and treatment modalities. If it is determined that a lower level of education and training is acceptable, then the same level of reduced education and training should also be acceptable for physicians. Since these bills allow reduced levels of required education for the same or similar services, we should expect increasing levels of malpractice litigation should any of these bills get voted into law -- a boon to  both plaintiffs' and defense bars, a veritable bonanza of malpractice litigation.

Late notice: we're advised that the Hernandez bills will be brought up in committee on April 29th.

No comments:

Post a Comment