Monday, September 18, 2006

Mississippi gives into allopathic terrorism

The allopathic terrorism mantra - one that Al Quaeda would be proud of, follows the paradigm of demanding special privileges (liability limits, excessive compensation, etc.) under the threat of withholding care. The allopaths of old served their profession well by utilizing the power of legislative feat to render themselves as the sole providers of a whole host of treatment options while concomitantly reducing the supply of those that could provide such services. The end result? Monopoly powers with the ability to terrorize the citizenry.

Mississippi is one of a long list of unfortunate states in which the sheeple and their elected representatives have appeased these terrorists. This could have easily been avoided by telling the AMA and CME to take a hike and using state healthcare funds to open new training facilities (not under the rules or requirements of the CME) and grant state licenses to practice. Instead, what we have is the botched abortion of stripping of the rights of the plebacy in order to further enrich and hold blameless for the mistake of the do no harm god complexers.

Exaggerating clinician called out by trial lawyer

Even though this was written by a trial lawyer, who most likely would not resist in holding off on bringing in a prostituting clinician in on a PI or toxic tort case, there are some important points of note.

"
Did you also wonder why she didn't put a price tag on what she claims are the "large portions of multimillion-dollar awards" that go for what she terms "pain and suffering," (non-economic damages)? She doesn't know because statistics aren't kept. How can she claim they're the problem when she can't tell you how much they are?

Ultimately, the reason people who want to take away the rights of the injured rely on incomplete anecdotes is that the facts are clear: Pennsylvania has made large strides in improving the medical malpractice market. The number of lawsuits is down sharply, payouts are down and the insurance market is stable - as is the number of physicians. Even the Pennsylvania Medical Association has admitted as much in its recent report "The State of Medicine in Pennsylvania: 2005."


Anectodes, even coming from the idol of the American sheeple, the allopath are not a replacement for sound evidence. Yet, this is the same type of junk testimony that is often offered on the witness stands in courtrooms across this country. What will it take for the American populace to say enough - we will not tolerate a system set up to protect the allopaths while screwing over patients and society as a whole?

Criminal allopaths continue to rape California

In the latest outrage associated with allopathic extortion, psychiatrists in California refuse to put their "do no harm" gallant egalitarianism claims into action when it comes to putting the needs of the State and its citizens before their own. The link is here:

"I
n response to the hiring problems, the state is likely to be forced to increase salaries, perhaps sharply. Robert Sillen, who was appointed earlier this year by a federal judge as receiver for the prison health care system, just announced that he is raising salaries as much as 30 percent to fill vacancies in prison clinics, and that is likely to force the Department of Mental Health to follow suit just to stay even.

Gary Robinson, executive director of the union representing doctors in prisons and state hospitals, said that in his view salaries will have to go from a base level of close to $150,000 per year to at least $200,000 per year to bring qualified doctors to relatively remote spots such as Coalinga.

In an interview, Sillen said he might have to do more than increase salaries. He said many professionals simply do not want to leave urban areas and move to small, remote towns. As a result, he is contemplating having the state pay to create air shuttles for some health professionals, allowing them to live in Los Angeles or the Bay Area and fly to their jobs in places like Coalinga."


Two hundred thousand per year? Rock star treatment by being ferried into Coalinga? Why does this problem exist? This problem exists because the AMA, through its nefarious member, the CME, imposes a severe restriction on the domestic production of allopathic physicians. The result of this is obvious. With an increasing demand for healthcare services and a very limited supply of those that can legally provide them, the compensation rates for the latter are exaggerated out of proportion. This is a system that the Robber Barons of yesteryear can only envy. Not only is there a legal monopoly for the allopaths, but the idiot sheeple support it. The solution to the problem is relatively simple. Instead of wasting hundreds of millions of dollars to enrich these monopolistic allopathic criminals, each state should open its own training facilities. Such facilities would require no coupling with any research institution (we are supposed to be training providers to provide basic healthcare services using proven methods). The curriculum requirements should be a hands on approach such that providers can be quickly developed instead of the requirements pushed forth by the AMA and the CME, which only serve to restrict supply. Furthermore, the providers should only be allowed to obtain licensure in their state of training with no comity. By flooding the market with new providers the cost of care would decrease and the access to care would improve as providers, having to fight for patients, would have to service communities and populations that they currently give the middle finger to. It is about time the members of the various state legislators opened their eyes to this ongoing extortion and blackmail and instead of coddling those conducting the same, revamped the entire system to serve the populace. The type of behavior exhibited by the allopaths would be soundly condemned if it were exhibited by the oil and gas companies. The same should hold true here.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

The sick truth about hiding malpractice

There is a plethora of whining when it comes to the cost of malpractice insurance. Surprisingly (or not), physicians are very quiet about rooting out the actual malpractice that occurs during clinical practice. One way of doing this is by sealing malpractice settlements so that the general public remains clueless regarding the true malpractice record of the provider. There is some hope.

" In medical cases, the practice puts the public at risk by shielding sub-par physicians from public disclosure of their mistakes, said Paul Lyon, spokesman for The Committee For Justice For All, a non-profit group that advocates for plaintiffs’ rights in civil litigation."


Not allowing the public to know? Do no harm? Perhaps to the pocketbook and social status of the provider. Patients be damned.

"The M-Care fund will pay part of the $3 million Walter Bryk’s wife, Amanda, will receive in her settlement with Mercy Hospital of Scranton and Dr. Jeffrey Wilcox, a heart surgeon who failed to properly suture her 42-year-old husband’s heart, causing a rupture that killed him, according to settlement papers filed in Luzerne County Court last week."


And why is this provider being allowed to continue to practice? Where is the State Medical Board in disciplining this provider by revocation of licensure? Where is the outrage from the medical community that this provider is allowed to continue to practice? Is Pa. not one of those states where there is a "malpractice crisis?" There is a crisis... the crisis of practitioners committing malpractice while still being allowed to retain their licenses to commit malpractice. Think about this case the next time you hear the inevitable whining that is sure to come from the sundry and nefarious medical groups concerning the "malpractice crisis."

Everybody else's fault except the provider

This piece would be absolutely hillarious if it were not so sad. Allopath goes to trial in a med mal case and looses. Does he accept responsibility for his malpractice? No. Instead he turns around and sues his insurance company. Perhaps, instead of clogging the courts with his junk lawsuits, he should spend a bit of time figuring out how to stop his malpractice...

Yet another puff piece

Yet another puff piece threatening the plebecy with removal of access to care unless special privileges are granted to the allopathic profession. The link is here.

"
A U.S. study suggests malpractice concerns may deter some medical students from pursuing careers in obstetrics and gynecology."

Another example of how "do no harm" is irrelevant in terms of the patient populace and stops at the pocketbooks of the providers. Medical students are not concerned with meeting the needs of the patient population but instead are placing themselves first.

"
The survey by the University of South Florida`s College of Medicine found the medical malpractice climate in Florida might further reduce patients` access to obstetric care."

This is a backdoor method of attacking even the minimal standard of responsibility to which the allopaths in Florida are held. Florida law requires that allopaths turn in their license to practice after the third adverse medical malpractice ruling. There should never be a first case of incompetency or malpractice, much less the third, from those after whom the term "God-complex" was coined. "Malpractice reform" has nothing to do with stopping the actual malpractice but instead has everything to do with protecting those that commit it.

"Deutsch, noting Florida mirrors a national trend of fewer medical students applying for ob/gyn residencies, hypothesizes student concerns about the rising cost of malpractice premiums and medical liability may contribute to the marked decline of those electing to specialize in ob/gyn."


Another thing to watch for is whitewashing of speculation from allopaths that is put forth using terms such as "hypothesizes" or, even worse, personal lay opinion that is passed for expert opinion.



How to read news articles

When it comes to allopathic idolatry, the expression of the same can most certainly be insidious. In no place is this more evident than when it comes to news stories governing the costs of malpractice insurance or stories governing physicians being "driven out" or "forced out" of practice by the cost of their malpractice insurance. Unfortunately, most of these stories only report the premium side for the former and the claims from the physicians regarding the latter. When you see the "cost" side of the equation (e.g. malpractice insurance costs X dollars per in premiums), the first question that you should ask is what is the after-expense (including malpractice insurance) income of the provider in question. Most journalists, either as a result of pushing the pro-provider agenda or simply due to suspension of critical thinking skills will either not ask or not report this figure. This is not surprising, it is a bit difficult to engender sympathy for those in the profession whose mean after-expense (including malpractice insurance premiums) is the highest of all professions in this country. Think about that the next time you read about some physician making at least 145K crying about the cost of doing business.

On the issue of being "forced out" of practice... Nobody is forcing the providers out of practice. The Gestapo is not knocking on their collective door and making them leave at gunpoint. They are choosing to abandon existing patients in favor of venues that will enhance their six or seven figure incomes. Do no harm? Perhaps to the pocketbooks and social status of the providers. Patients be damned.

PIAA continues to ask for patient devaluation

The Physician Insurers Association of America (PIAA) rattles their sabre to continue the devaluation of the lives of the patient populace. The link is here .

"According to the PIAA Data Sharing Project, a claims data base of more than 200,000 claims and the largest of its kind in the United States, the average indemnity payment for a medical malpractice claim has grown 127.5% to $317,239 and the average cost to defend a medical malpractice claim through verdict has grown 103.3% to $100,214 over the last 15 years. In addition, since 1990, the percentage of paid claims at or above $1 million has increased fourfold."

Of course they fail to mention that most cases never see the light of day in a court of law and for the few that do make it to trial, the brainwashed medical worshipping jury pool is more than likely to excuse the malpractice of the provider. Interestingly, they fail to mention the cost to society and ill-gained wealth generated for allopaths secondary to their participation as junk science causation proponents in personal injury cases.

"
The PIAA has long advocated the expeditious payment of meritorious claims, to include full compensation of actual damages. The PIAA also advocates for payment of up to $250,000 for injured patients' pain and suffering, among other tort reform measures, in order to arrest soaring medical malpractice premiums and to provide the industry with much needed financial stability."


What this group is advocating is more special treatment for physicians - treatment that is not available to any other group engaged in the course and scope of their business practice. Not surprisingly, when it comes to personal injury cases in which physicians prostitute themselves for financial gain, there are no calls for "tort reform" or "damage caps." The paradigm of the role of the physician as a profiteer vs. defendant is glaring. It is also instructive to think about this in the following manner: If you have children, are elderly and are on a fixed income or are a stay at home mother... how is life valued? Is life, in this case, only worth 250K? That is what these "tort reform" measures explicitly state. An incompetent surgeon, allowed to continue practice by his/her cronies on his/her State Medical Board, botches a surgery resulting in the death of a CEO (under these capped guidelines) and is liable for millions. The same incompetent kills your child and is only liable for 250K for your pain and suffering.

Allopathic double standard

So... Brainwashed into thinking that allopaths only serve as targets for the ATLA when it comes to medical malpractice suits? Think again. Every junk science personal injury (whiplash or Banana Anna case), toxic tort case and (yes) medical malpractice case requires an allopath to prostitute themselves to the same trial attorneys. There is a very positive correlation between the whining and the lack thereof from the allopaths regarding the trial attorneys and the role of the allopath as a defendant or a profiteer in a litigated matter. There has been no concerted effort on the part of organized medicine to limit junk science medical causation testimony (post hoc ergo propter hoc or parroting their litigious patient) but organizations that represent the medical profession have done everything in their power to devalue the lives of patients and absolve providers of responsibility when it comes to medical incompetence.