I will be speaking on a Webcast seminar on January 5, 2011 at Noon CST discussing the developments in the law of notice and certificates of good faith in medical malpractice cases. I will also discuss service of process issues after the decision in Hall v. Haynes.
The seminar is sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association. The price is $45 for TBA members and $65 for non-TBA members. One hour of CLE credit will be earned.
Register here.
Judge Mays of the United States District Court in Memphis has dismissed a medical malpractice case filed against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act because the plaintiff did not file a certificate of good faith as required by T.C.A. Sec. 29-26-122.
Judge Mays held that the federal courts should apply Tennessee substantive law on the issue and that the failure to file the certificate required dismissal of the case.
The judge also dismissed the loss of consortium claim brought by the medical malpractice plaintiff’s spouse, saying that her claim was derivative to her husband’s claim and since his claim was rejected for failure to file the certificate the loss of consortium claim was also barred.
The November 25, 2010 New York Times has reported on a study that has found that no progress has been made at improving patient safety in hospitals.
The study is reported in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine. It was conducted from 2002 to 2007 in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time. The most common problems were complications from procedures or drugs and hospital-acquired infections.
As the author explained,
Yesterday I reported that SVMIC, the bedpan mutual that insures the vast majority of Tennessee doctors, reduced its rates by 23.1% . I also reported that the company declared a $20,000,000 dividend. The net effect of the dividend means that policyholders with a history of no paid claims will receive another 8% reduction (or so) in rates effective May 15, 2010.
How can SVMIC cut rates so dramatically while paying the highest dividend it has paid in years? There are two reasons. First, as a result of the tort reform passed effective October 1, 2008 (revised effective July 1, 2009) claims have decreased substantially. Fewer claims means reduced claims handling costs, defense fees, court reporter and other litigation fees, and claims payments. Since the law permits insurers to "write off" reserves as they are established, fewer claims means that reserves are lower than these would have otherwise been had there been more claims. A decrease in the need to set aside money in reserves for these "absent" claims increases net income.
And how it has increased. In 2009, SVMIC had a net income (after taxes) of a whopping $71, 968,000, an increase of over 100% from a year earlier.
In recent days I have shared several posts (here, here, here, and here) concerning the substantial reduction in the number of medical malpractice cases filed in Tennessee since the enactment of the law that mandates pre-suit notice and filing of a certificate of good faith.
Thus, it is not surprising that State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company, the doctor-owned medical malpractice insurer that insures the vast majority of non-university based physicians in Tennessee, has slashed medical malpractice insurance rates.
The average rate decrease, effective for renewals on or after May 15, 2010, is $23.1% at $1M / $3M insurance policy limits. There are different rates of decreases depending on specialty, dividend status, limits, years in practice, and other factors.
This is Part 4 of my report on medical malpractice filings in Tennessee for 2010. (Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) Today, I examine the county where I live, Williamson County.
Williamson County, Tennessee is on the southern border of Davidson County, which is the home of our state capital, Nashville. In 2010 Williamson County had 180,891 residents. Almost 90 percent of those residents were white and about 5% of them were African-American. The average household income was almost $122,000 per year and the per capita annual income was about $42,000. Over 56% of the people in the county have attained at least one college degree.
Williamson Medical Center is a 185-bed hospital in Franklin. It provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient care. It has an active emergency room and has physicians on-staff in some 36 specialties.
Yesterday I wrote about the decrease in the number of medical malpractice case filings since the new law requiring pre-suit notice and a certificate of good faith went into effect October 1,2008. As I mentioned, the total number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed for the one-year period ending September 30, 2010 was 313.
Tennessee has approximately 6,100,000 people. Assuming that there was a single plaintiff in each case (which is almost always true except for loss of consortium claims in injury cases) simple math tells us that there was one claim filed for every 20,000 Tennesseans.
There are 137 hospitals in the state with about 20,000 hospital beds. There are 317 nursing homes with 36,276 beds. There are about 18,560 non-federal licensed physicians. There are also almost 62,000 registered nurses. There are 954 physicians’ assistants, 4853 nurse practitioners and 4,196 dentists. Each of these providers is a potential defendant in a malpractice case. Add to this some number of x-ray techs, ambulance drivers, etc.
The preliminary numbers are in for 2010 and demonstrate that the statute providing for the giving of notice and filing a certificate of good faith has dramatically decreased the number of medical malpractice filings in Tennessee. The new law came in to effect on October 1, 2008 and was modified effective July 1, 2009.
You may remember that for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2008, 644 medical malpractice lawsuits were filed in Tennessee. A whooping 140 of those were filed in September 2008, some of which were filed as lawyers took action to avoid the burden and risks of filing cases under the new law.
For the year ending September 30, 2009, the first year that the new law was in effect, available data indicates that only 263 medical malpractice lawsuits had been filed. Because there were a larger-than-usual number of filings before the new law came into effect, it is fair to say that filings were lower than one would expect in an ordinary year.
This is Part 4 of my report on medical malpractice filings in Tennessee for 2010. (Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) Today, I examine the county where I live, Williamson County.
Williamson County, Tennessee is on the southern border of Davidson County, which is the home of our state capital, Nashville. In 2010 Williamson County had 180,891 residents. Almost 90 percent of those residents were white and about 5% of them were African-American. The average household income was almost $122,000 per year and the per capita annual income was about $42,000. Over 56% of the people in the county have attained at least one college degree.
Williamson Medical Center is a 185-bed hospital in Franklin. It provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient care. It has an active emergency room and has physicians on-staff in some 36 specialties.
Day on Torts