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.
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.
This episode of AHLA. Speaking of health law is brought to you by AHLA members and donors like you. For more information, visit American health law.org.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm norm tablet with this month's edition of the lighter side of health law elective injuries. You've heard of elective surgeries now com elective injuries. That's what some physicians in hospitals are calling the injuries resulting from the viral phenomenon called the milk crate challenge. You've probably seen it if not on YouTube than on local TV, plastic milk crates are arranged in a pyramid and some idiot tries to walk to the top of the pyramid and then down the other side, well guess what happens? Here's a hint. It's why they call it a challenge. It's hard to get to the top of the pyramid. And then down to the other side, people fall very frequently and when they fall, they get hurt. And when they get hurt, they go to the ER, I don't know about you, but for me, the most painful part would be explaining to the ER doc, whatever possessed me to take part in a dumb stunt like milk crate climbing. There's no truth to the rumor that the milk crate challenge was a marketing brainstorm of the American society of orthopedic surgeons. Multitasking at work. There's always been a debate about the concept of multitasking. Some people think it's a valid concept. And then in today's complicated world, you need to be able to do more than one thing at a time to survive. Others insists that your mind can only be on one thing at a time, and you're kidding yourself to think otherwise. Well, this debate came to mind when I read about the federal case against the long-time chair of the UPMC cardiothoracic surgery department. If the allegations are true, then Dr. Luke titch is a firm believer in multitasking. How do I know? Because the indictment says that according to his billing records, he was sometimes in three different ORs at the same time, simultaneously performing heart surgery on all three patients. That's the basis of the false claims case brought against the doctor and the hospital. How did the feds learn about the doctors three at a time operations? Another doctor at the hospital turned whistleblower the case as U S versus Luke touch, Western district, Pennsylvania busy bee trophy. This month's busy bee trophy goes to Michigan. Dr. Vernon Proctor. When the Michigan court of appeals looked into Dr. Vern's records, it discovered that in a single 12 month period, he had prescribed medical marijuana for a whopping 22,000 patients. That's right, 22,000 by my calculations, if Dr. Verne spent every minute of every eight hour Workday and every one of the 52 weeks in a year, that would amount to 5.6, seven minutes per marijuana, needy patient, and the 5.67 minutes per patient would decrease. If, say, Dr. Verne ever took a day off a lunch or a bathroom break or time to see a non marijuana needy patient. The court agreed with the administrative judge that Dr. Vernon could not possibly have met the standard of care for the 22,000 patients. So the court suspended Vern's medical license for two years, giving him a much needed break from the marijuana prescribing treadmill. By the way, the busy bee trophy is not the usual cup. It's a pot. The case is Enri Vernon, Proctor MD, Michigan court of appeals, a real nice lever. SLA P P stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation. The purpose of slap laws is to allow dismissal of lawsuits designed to prevent the exercise of constitutional rights. For example, when a coal company brings a defamation suit against someone for saying that fossil fuels hurt the environment, David Stone was unhappy with the way his knees felt after surgery by Dr. Melillo. So he began a campaign to inform the world of his unhappiness, including picketing the doctor's hospital with signs and handing out flyers saying the doctor performed unnecessary surgery, botched the surgery, and generally ruined his life. When the doctor sued stone for defamation stone, invoke the Texas slap law and move to dismiss. But the court ruled that the doctor could maintain the suit because the dispute was a private squabble, not an issue of public concern. Stone's actions were defamatory per se. He was making factual, assertions, not opinion. And his medical records prove that his statements were false. So stones, SLAPP motion to dismiss was denied and the doctor's defamation suit allowed to proceed. One silver lining for stone is that now he has an excuse to stop picketing, which was really tough on his bum knees. The case of stone versus Malillo Texas court of appeals, brief lapse of judgment. You might say Pittsburgh attorney Jeffrey had a brief lapse in judgment. When he displayed his briefs outside the Allegheny county family courtroom. When Jeff went through the metal detector, the alarm sounded, Jeff knew the reason he keeps his trousers up with braces. Sometimes call suspenders braces have two metal clips in front for adjusting the length of the braces. Jeff says he asked the guard to use this wand rather than making him go through the metal detector. Again, the guard had a different idea. Jeff should remove the braces, put them in a band and run them through the machine. Jeffrey fused why? Well, Jeff says it's a pain in the neck to remove the braces. You have to unbutton four buttons in front and two in back then afterward re button all six, all the while holding your trousers up with one hand. So he removed his trousers, braces attached and put them in the bin that Manny was standing trouser lists outside the family courtroom, displaying his briefs for the world to see which caused the sheriff to charge him with disorderly conduct and something of an understatement. Jeff later commented. I used poor judgment. Let's get casual. They're getting pretty casual down in Tennessee. At least when it comes to estate planning, the Tennessee court of appeals has upheld and unwitnessed one sentence bequest handwritten on a page in a book. What's more, it contains only the first name of the deceased Mickey Thompson. And it's written in the third person as though it's about Mickey rather than by her. It reads in its entirety. Quote, Albert Reed Lewin shall receive$3,000 per month for life. His appreciation for his care and complete dedication to Mickey and her welfare. The court overlooked the absence of Mickey's last name, absence of a witness. And the fact that it reads as though someone else was writing about Mickey, it upheld the request. It probably helped that the page was in the Bible. The case is a state of Mickey Thompson. The trouble is skimpy briefs and Illinois appellate court has had it with lawyers with skimpy briefs. Bonnie Wiles was state sued the university of Chicago med center for negligence. The med center denied being negligent and asserted. The affirmative defense that Bonnie was contributory negligent due to a history of smoking and refusing to follow medical advice. The jury delivered a general verdict for the defendant, the estate appealed. And this is where these can be briefs come in. The brief did not include a complete statement of facts. Instead it focused exclusively on the issue of smoking and contributory negligence. What's more, and this is what really steamed the court. There was no citation to the record to support the statement of facts about that issue. The court's response was withering quote. It is not our duty to scour the record in an effort to understand and appellant's case when the appellant fails to adequately. Describe the pleadings below the court rule that because of the skimpy briefing and violation of court rules, the appellant had forfeited the case, the cases Cox vs, university of Chicago med center, appellate court of Illinois, having your cake and eating it to the pharmacy owner. Peter bolos wanted to have his cake, but he also wanted to eat it. He's charged with running a massive health insurance billing fraud scheme, how massive$1 billion that's billion with a B, but he has a defense reliance on advice of counsel. My lawyers told me it was legal. He insisted that's the cake he wanted to have. Okay. Said the government show us the lawyer's documents, giving you that advice. No way bullets responded. That's privileged. I don't have to reveal those documents. That's when federal judge Ronnie Greer explained that he had eaten that cake. When he invoked the advice of counsel defense, the order reads defendant bolos is ordered to immediately provide all withheld documents to the United States. The cases us versus Assad Eastern district, Tennessee, Jeff sends his regrets North Dakota lawmaker, Jeff whole Verson spent a lot of time and effort into organizing and publicizing his November eight rally against COVID vaccine mandates. Sadly, Jeff was unable to attend his own rally. Why? Because Jeff had come down with you guested COVID well, that's it for this month's edition of the lighter side of health law. I hope you enjoyed it. Check your AHLA weekly and health law connections magazine for the next edition.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe to AHLA. Speaking of health law, wherever you get your podcasts to learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health community, visit American health law.org.