The Lighter Side of Health Law – December 2022

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

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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: 0:21

Hi, I'm Tapper with this month's edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law, another Tale of Covid Heartbreak. You may want to get out a box of Kleenex before listening to this story of a group denied insurance coverage for a devastating loss caused by Covid. And these are not people who merely lost their businesses or their livelihoods. No, these are scares At Vail Resort in Colorado. Skiers who bought ski passes expecting the resort to stay open until April 15th, 2020, when it was forced to close on March 15, due to Covid, their ski passes were no good. After March 15, even though they had paid$67 a day, they filed an insurance claim for the ski days they missed. And when the insurer declined coverage, they made a federal case of it in a class action. Well, it turns out that the policy clearly says coverage ends the date upon which ski operations are ceased due to an unforeseen event, even if earlier than the schedule end. So the skiers lost at the district court level and again at the ninth Circuit. I understand that a relief fund has been set up for them. The case is HOK versus United Specialty Insurance Ninth Circuit. Why it Hertz to rent at Hertz. Hertz rented car company had a problem with inventory management. Sometimes they couldn't locate all their cars, so they came up with a crackerjack idea for solving it. As soon as they couldn't locate a car, they would report it to the police. As stolen the result, hundreds of innocent hertz renters were arrested for car theft, often at police gunpoint. Earlier this month, Hertz announced it's paying 168 million to settle over 95% of the claims. You can't make this stuff up. Amanda Ramirez of Florida has brought a class action against Hines Foods for consumer fraud. In marketing. Its Vel Vita shells and cheese product. The fraud. Well, it says right there on the package quote, ready in three and a half minutes. But wait, isn't three and a half minutes the right microwave setting for the mac and cheese? Well, yes, Amanda acknowledges. But what about all the other steps in the process like taking the lid off the pouch, adding water to the cup and stirring and after microwaving stirring in the cheese sauce? All those steps take time. Time. In addition to the microwaving, that means that the promise quote, ready in three and a half minutes is a big fat lie. As I said, you can't make this stuff up. Just kidding. That was in effect. The message Northeastern Law School sent 205 Applicants who had six hours earlier received the happy news that they had been accepted by the law school. Hey, that acceptance was sent an error. The second email said 200 mistaken acceptances may sound like a big error, but it's nothing compared to the year before when the same law school sent out 4,000 erroneous acceptances. I think I'd put a new person in charge of sending out acceptances. But hey, that's just me parts department, please. This med mal case caught my eye because I recently had the same surgical procedure. A spinal fusion. De Moses underwent the procedure at Riverside Hospital with Dr. Jack Acmagian doing the honors. Well, at first the surgery seemed to have been a success, but then de began to experience pain, pain worse than before the surgery. When she consulted Dr. Jack, he told her a piece of the metal he had implanted had broken, loose and was causing the pain. Well, upon further inspection, it turns out that the hardware wasn't FDA approved. It was counterfeit, designed to look like the approved hardware, even with a Ford's logo, but it was a knockoff. Dr. Jack says Derek consented to the sketchy parts when she signed a consent form that authorized quote investigational parts. But Derek counters that. A, she never agreed to unapproved parts. And B, that's not her signature. On the consent form, the case is Moses versus Health Smart Pacific, California Superior Court. PS, my surgery was a success. Judges don't like to be judged. Here's a cautionary tale from the Pacific Islands. In a court document in Fiji, a judge twice wrote injection When he meant injunction, one of the most senior lawyers in the country spotted the mistake and was amused. He posted his discovery on Facebook along with a thinking face emoji. He was found guilty of contempt of court and will be sentenced in January when he faces a prospect of a heavy fine or up to six months in prison. Hardest working man in law business. If James Brown was the hardest working man in show business, my vote for the hardest working man in law business goes to West Virginia. Attorney David Tyson. How hard did he work? Over 24 hours a day, sometimes up to 29 hours in a single day. How do we know? Because that's what he charged the public defender service. Fortunately for David's health, he can't keep up the pace because he's been disbarred. Complaint department. This is where I complain about something that bothers me or something you've sent in that bothers you. Americans seem hell bent on misusing the word drone. In law firms, people often use the term to describe a lawyer who spends long hours researching some DU subject, as in Chad is just another drone researching blue sky law 10 hours a day. Of course, if that's what Chad does, he's the opposite of a drone. He's a worker. Bee. Drones don't do anything except lie around in the hive all day. They only leave to mate these days. The term comes up most often in terms of unmanned airplanes, as in a drone delivered life-saving vaccine to the remote village, or maybe a drone delivered a lethal blow to the supposedly impregnable terrorist hideout. But as I said before, that's backward. Drones are fat and lazy. They can't hurt anybody. They don't even have stingers. If you want a beehive metaphor for a hard worker or a machine that can get things done, it's worker beat, not drone. And you know what else? Worker bees are always female. The fat lazy drones are always male. If you have a complaint, sent it to me. Well, that's it for this month's edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law. I hope you liked it. I'll be back next month with another edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Thank you for listening. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe to A H L A speaking of health law wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about a H L A and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit American health law.org.