MALPRACTICE CASE SOON TO BE DECIDED BY SUPREME COURT

Malpractice reform in Utilization Review is again on the line, this time because the California Supreme Court has scheduled hearings re  King v. CompPartners on May 29. The case resolves about the rights of an injured worker when UR denies access to treatment ordered by a California licensed  physician and when, as a result of this medically wrong UR decision, an injured worker is not only denied treatment but also suffers harm as a result of the combined negligence of UR and the insurance carrier that benefits financially by being absolved of its obligation to pay for care.


The current issue revolves about the decision of an insurance company to stop paying for Kirk King's klonopin. The insurance company's decision was made on the basis of a utilization reviewer's wrongful judgement that could in due course prove harmful to physicians engaged in UR. Our information is that the UR doctor made an incorrect and harmful decision that was happily adopted by the insurance company. This quick-step could end up with a two-step revision of UR, namely, requiring that UR physicians be licensed in the states where their decisions are used and that they carry malpractice insurance in those states. This publication favors both steps. 

The California Workers Compensation Institute  (CWCI) has argued  that UR is not medical practice, a clearly absurd position to treating physicians and to the patients who are harmed. This fatuous argument was supported twice by Gov. Schwarzenegger and once by Gov. Brown who vetoed bills that would have implemented state licensing for UR and IMR (Independent Medical Review) doctors. Brown's reasoning was more tortured than Schwarzenegger's -- he said that requiring UR doctors to be licensed "would be an abrupt change and inconsistent with the manner in which utilization review is conducted by health care service plans under the Knox-Keene Act and by those regulated by the California Department of Insurance."

THAT is just the point: UR and IMR decisions that deny indicated and necessary care are harmful intrusions into medical care and should be squashed. These denials require the abandonment of the duty of care owed to injured workers. CWCI's reading of the law is frivolous, legalizes abandonment of sick and injured workers, and deserves to be repealed along with enabling law created by SB 863 --  which added insult to injury by adding IMR to the Utilization Review process.

In a nutshell, in the unfortunate case of Kirk King, the insurance carrier stopped payment for prescribed medication based on  the UR doctor's report. The result was that the patient suffered epileptic seizures.  

The opinion of this publication is that the injured worker was abandoned and that the UR system and the insurance company were at fault and opened the door to the malpractice litigation now in progress. The harm that befell Kirk King is proof that the UR system practiced unsound and negligent medicine. 

The Supreme Court should find that UR doctors owe a duty of care to injured workers and that in the King case UR and the insurer were negligent. Such a decision will restore equity between treatment and utilization review. 

References

High Court to Hear Arguments in UR Malpractice Dispute May 29, Workcompcentral, 2018-05-11

Malpractice by Utilization Review?, The Weinmann Report, 12/13/2014 (www.politicsofhealthcare.com)

Malpractice Reform Makes it to California Supreme Court, The Weinmann Report, 01/02/2017

Malpractice and drug testing: Pee Pee Politics (PPP)

We've been asked several times to provide the dates of our posts on the Pee Pee Wars, namely,  the trial lawyers' attempt to disguise advantageous malpractice reform in their favor while making it seem as though they want to protect the public by testing doctors for drug abuse. The Triple P moniker arises from the method of testing, namely, micturition into little cups. Here's the dates of our posts: 6/25/14. 5/28/14, 4/27/14, and 4/24/14. - RLW, editor

P.S. The trial lawyers' initiative, The Troy and Alana Pack Safety Act,  has now been officially designated Proposition 46. Accordingly, we recommend support for the NO on 46 campaign. - rlw, ed.

Is SB 1429 (Steinberg) an aborted last ditch effort to settle medical malpractice liability ...

... or a possible vehicle for Gut and Amend at the end of the scheduled legislative session?    

In a nutshell, our opinion as of 28 April 2014 is that SB 1429 is almost dead in the water -- that's why we didn't discuss it in our previous article (RANDOM DRUG TESTING FOR LAWYERS: WHEN SHOULD LAWYERS BE DRUG TESTED?, 4/24/14)  about involuntary drug testing for lawyers. As matters stand now, the trial lawyers have committed their efforts to the initiative which has as its primary goal more money for lawyers who successfully prosecute malpractice cases. The initiative  would also impose random drug testing for doctors and require doctors to use a statewide data base when prescribing narcotic medication.

Steinberg's bill is less ambitious. His idea is to gather the parties together to work out a strategy that would be mutually satisfactory. Reasonable, you say? Not exactly because the lawyers aren't looking for a compromise on nickels and dimes and the doctors are dismayed about how much they already pay for malpractice insurance. Hence, a small increase in settlements as might be expected if non-economic damages were increased slightly or indexed for inflation doesn't interest the lawyers who, by the way, rejected a cost-of-living adjustment several years ago. Any increase in malpractice premiums doesn't sit well with the doctors whose incomes have been eroded over the last few years as managed care plans, HMOs, PPOs, and Covered California take over.

As for the statewide data base called CURES, just try to use it. Usually their phones if they have more than one go unanswered or the caller does not get the information requested. We've been advised that the database is underfunded and can't get the coverage it needs. So one of the first services to cut was knowledgeable persons answering phones.

It looks like both sides have stepped away from SB 1429, but, in theory, that could change under the proper circumstances. That would imply mutual  cooperation which at the moment does not appear likely in California's  House of Cards. SB 1429 lurks in the corner, a candidate for Gut and Amend.

Late Flash: the trial lawyers' initiative has now been designated Proposition 46 while the campaign against it will be known as the No on 46 Campaign. We will support No on 46 and advise our readers to do the same.