Medical Jurisprudence Commons^™

Medical Malpractice Liability Crisis Or Patient Compensation Crisis?, Kathryn Zeiler

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article is organized as follows. Part II summarizes the common rhetoric in tort reform debates that places the blame for rising premiums on the liability system and touts tort reform as the cure-all for ailing insurance markets. It then summarizes empirical results, produced using Texas closed claims data and other data, which suggest not only that Texas tort reform advocates wrongly placed blame on the liability system, but also that noneconomic damages caps passed in 2003 have caused more harm than good. Part III describes results that suggest that the widely used tactic of pointing to jumbo jury verdicts …

Recalibrating The Legal Risks Of Cross-Border Health Care, Nathan Cortez

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The nascent scholarship surrounding "medical tourism" assumes, without much scrutiny, that foreign jurisdictions provide few legal remedies to patients, instead focusing on whether U.S. patients can sue in U.S. courts. This article tests that assumption by examining whether patients might recover adequate compensation not only in the United States, but in four common destinations: India, Thailand, Singapore, and Mexico. I analyze how each jurisdiction handles medical malpractice complaints and discuss the unique obstacles patients might face when navigating each of these systems. I conclude that U.S. patients will struggle to recover remotely adequate compensation in each of these jurisdictions. This …

State Of Emergency: Why Georgia's Standard Of Care In Emergency Rooms Is Harmful To Your Health, Jason R. Graves

Georgia Law Review

Patients injured by medical negligence have historically
been able to recover for the injuries they sustained. In
2005, however, the Georgia General Assembly passed
Georgia Senate Bill 3, which gave virtual immunity to
emergency room doctors and those practicing in obstetrics
wards. The Bill requires a showing of gross negligence by
clear and convincing evidence to prevail on a medical
malpractice claim against those protected by the statute.
The law prevents injured patients who cannot meet this
standard from recovering any damages, even
compensation for medical bills arising from the negligent
act. The legislature enacted the Bill in an effort …

Litigation, Integration, And Transformation: Using Medcaid To Address Racial Inequities In Health Care, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Instances of racial discrimination in health care continue despite the enactment of civil rights laws, such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 *329 (Title VI). Title VI prohibited racial discrimination by health care entities receiving government funding such as Medicaid payments. The federal government focused its initial efforts on hospitals. Because hospitals relied on federal funding, the federal government was able to force hospitals to integrate without much resistance from the hospital industry. However, since this accomplishment the government has relied too heavily on assurances of compliance from other health care entities, such as nursing homes, …

African Americans Can't Win, Break Even, Or Get Out Of The System: The Persistence Of “Unequal Treatment ” In Nursing Home Care, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Empirical data show that racial disparities in the quality of care provided by nursing homes are a common occurrence, not isolated to Illinois. Nine years after the publication of the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Study (“IOM study”) Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare, which acknowledged continued racial disparities in health care and provided suggestions for the elimination of these disparities, racial disparities still remain. One chief example of the continuation of racial disparities in health care is in the provision of nursing home care.

Decades of empirical research studies have shown that racial disparities in accessing quality …

Mediating Medical Malpractice Lawsuits: The Need For Plaintiff And Physician Participation, Chris Stern Hyman, Carol B. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

At this moment in history, tort reform and new approaches to resolving medical malpractice claims are part of the national debate about how to improve health care. Federal funding is available for pilot projects to test new approaches to medical malpractice litigation. There is increased pressure from health care regulators to disclose adverse events and communicate better with patients and their families. These all present opportunities to increase the use of mediation, particularly to address medical malpractice lawsuits and to improve patient safety.

For the past seven years, we have been studying ways in which mediation and mediation skills can …