The Lighter Side of Health Law – March 2023

AHLA's monthly podcast featuring health lawyer and blogger Norm Tabler's informative and entertaining take on recent health law and other legal developments.

To learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit americanhealthlaw.org.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

This episode of A H L A Speaking of health law is brought to you by A H L A members and donors like you. For more information, visit american health law.org.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Hi, I'm Norm Tabler with this month's edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law Sharks in the nursing pool. Actually, it's the reverse. New Hampshire's Dartmouth Health is daring its nurses to dive into the Shark Tank. They call it Shark Tank for nurses, and it's an event where nurses are divided into teams with each team pitching ideas for innovation to five judges. At the inaugural event, the winning team developed a quote, go-getter strap, enabling an employee to transport two wheelchairs at a time. Happily, no one was seriously bitten who poisoned honey smacks. When I read in the headlines that someone had poisoned Honey Smacks, my first thought was, who is Honey Smacks The name sounds like a stripper or maybe an exotic dancer, but no Honey Smacks turns out to be a breakfast cereal. And as to who poisoned her, I mean it. Well, it was the Director of Quality Assurance at the Kellogg's Plant in Gridley, Illinois. He directed subordinates not to report information about plant conditions to Kellogg's and to alter the program for monitoring for pathogens. The result Salman cases in 35 states and a nationwide recall of Honey Macks, the director pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors. Tough way to make history over in Boston. Peter Raunchy made legal history, but not in a way he wanted. Peter was in an argument with his pregnant girlfriend, Yulia, to put him in his place. Yo Eliah told him he was not the father, which by the way was not true. But Peter apparently believed it and was so enraged that he stabbed yo Eliah not just once but 15 times. Yo Eliah died and so did her unborn baby at his trial for murdering Eliah and the fetus, Peter Invo clear Massachusetts precedent that said, sudden revelation of infidelity and lack of paternity was enough provocation to reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court took the opportunity to rule vet the revelation of infidelity. Defense was no longer good law in Massachusetts. Peter was convicted of murdering Eli and also they fetus despite his nervy defense, which was, Hey, the fetus died from lack of blood circulation from the mother. None of the 15 stab wounds actually hit the fetus. The case is Commonwealth versus raunchy. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court shooting yourself in the Foot award, the hands down winner of this month, shooting yourself in the Foot Award is the law student in London who reported the following tale of whoa on Reddit. He applied for a position in the London office of a US law firm. The interview went well and the firm telephoned him for a follow up interview. He wasn't home, so the call went to his voicemail. Well, the young man had used his voicemail to prove how clever he is. I can't report the entire message. It's enough to note that it ended with the phrase nuts get trolled. Nerd. William might think that after a message like that, the firm would never contact the young man again, but they did. Within hours, they sent him an email stating that they had intended to invite him back for an interview. But that his voicemail message quote has indicated to us that you do not have the level of maturity to be a trainee at our firm, nor do we think it was very funny. It's the nor do we think it's very funny phrase that really stings when a physician is not a physician. Here's a case with two answers to the question. When is a physician, not a physician? Feta Mahari has sued a radiology center for malpractice in connection with injection by Dr. He colley under the supervision of Dr. Julian. She says that he Colley was not licensed at the time, and the center's director, Dr. Tabibian wasn't licensed either. Well, of course, the radiology center and its doctors turned to the malpractice insurer, general Starr, to provide a defense. But the insurer denied coverage, noting that the policy expressly says there's no coverage when a medical license is suspended or revoked. But the judge rejected the insurer's position, at least at this stage of the proceedings. Why? Well, since Dr. He Colley gave the injection under Dr. Julie's supervision, maybe he colley was operating as a medical assistant, not a physician. And as for Dr. Pavilion, the center's medical director, maybe you don't need a medical license when you're acting as a facility's medical director rather than as a physician. So there are two circumstances when a physician is not a physician when acting as a medical assistant, and when acting as a medical director, the case is General Star versus f and m radiology, central District California. By the way, the judge in the case is named Dolly G, which is hard for me to say without thinking that instead of Dolly G, it should be golly G, but maybe that's just me. Cheese lovers breathe a sigh of relief. Well, the cheese lovers of America breath the sigh of relief when they read the fourth circuit's recent decision. In the most recent battle of the Great Cheese War, a consortium of European Cheesemakers challenge the R right of American Cheesemakers to call it Cheese Guer. That's G R U Y E R E. Their argument, well, Guer is a region in Switzerland. When American companies slap the name Gure on their product, they're claiming it came from Switzerland, which is a big fat lie. Make them stop. But the court unanimously ruled that a mountain of evidence proves that over the years, Grier has become generic and now refers to a type of cheese rather than its place of origin. It makes me wonder if the plaintiffs had won, would french fries have to be renamed? How about Canadian bacon? The case is enter profession do Greger versus US Dairy Export Council Fourth Circuit. And you thought your firm was tough on associates. Associates and law firms often complain quite naturally about the constant pressure to meet billable hour goals. Maybe you're an associate in that position. If so, you might take some comfort from knowing that your firm is probably not as tough on you as the North Dakota law firm. Larson Latham, just as former associates, Tom Burkhart or Travis Iverson, when they resigned, the firm presented them with a bill for the shortfall between their billable hour goals and their actual hours. In Tom's case, the bill was for$30,000. When Tom and Travis refused to pay, the firm took them to court pointing out that their employment contracts clearly provide that a departing associate has to pay for any shortfall. The trial court gave the firm summary judgment and the state's Supreme Court affirmed my advice. Before resigning from your firm, check your employment contract carefully getting shot at the hospital. It's not generally newsworthy when someone gets a shot at the hospital, but it was when Marcus Cole visited Racine, Wisconsin's Ascension, all Saints Hospital. Marcus was under arrest for setting his apartment building on fire and neglecting to warn the other tenants. While at the hospital, Marcus grabbed the taser from the deputy who was escorting him. So the deputy unholstered his gun and gave Marcus a shot complaint. Department meteoric rise. You hear it all the time. Meteoric rise as in his rise from office. Boy to c e o was meteoric or her rise from political unknown to governor was meteoric. We know what the phrase is intended to mean. It's intended to tell us that the rise was spectacularly swift, breathtakingly fast. But think about it, meteors don't rise. They fall. They don't go up. They go down. So why would we compare a rise to a meteor? I know what you're thinking. Nor meteoric rise refers to the speed of the meteor, not to the direction of its path. But don't heavy things always fall fast. Would you compliment a C E O by saying he progressed through the company ranks like a falling rock or maybe a lead balloon? I don't think so. If you have a complaint, send it to me. Well, that's it for this must edition. I hope you liked it. I'll be back next month with another edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law.

Speaker 1: 8:30

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