Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

In JRW Healthcare Article, health care coverage expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Tort reform is the next step to take in helping straighten out our healthcare system. Currently, about 10% of our total healthcare expenditures are a result of “defensive medicine”, testing just in case there is a lawsuit filed. This amounts to over $210 Billion annually. Sadly, our President and the Democratic Party as a whole are handcuffed by their support from trial lawyers. Tort reform will not be an easy task because Congress is made up in overwhelming numbers by attorneys; but could be made easier if advanced by one of their own, namely the President.

Patients must do their part as well. Physicians do make mistakes; but, we must not punish the entire system by making physicians order every test and every procedure just in order to prevent unhappy and litigious patients. We need to think long and hard about limits on damages, punitive damages and the ease of lawsuits. We need to let physicians get on with the business of providing adequate, appropriate care to their patients without having to resort to the type of practice we have now where everything must be ruled out just because of the risk of lawsuits.

In JRW Healthcare Article, medical insurance expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Secondly, we need to drastically increase the number of Family Physicians, General Internists, and General Pediatricians. Our ratio of Family Practice physicians to specialists runs about 30/70. We need to reverse that percentage with Family Medicine restored to its traditional place of dignity and importance.

Only 2% of this year’s medical students have chosen Family Medicine as their specialty. If you think waiting for an appointment is bad now, just add 45 million more people to the mix to find out just what the word ugly means. As baby boomers age (78 million of us now out of 330 million), the need for Family Medicine is more urgent than ever.

In JRW Healthcare Article, health insurance expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Both political parties continue to focus solely on the supply side of our healthcare problem. We really need to be looking at the demand side as well. Value over volume should be everyone’s chief focus, but this will require sacrifice from everyone; physicians, patients, insurance carriers and the uninsured. We simply cannot afford to give everyone everything, no matter what the President says. The numbers just don’t add up.

It is time for all Americans to take a deep breath and revisit what could be done to make our healthcare system more accessible to all, less expensive, provide wider coverage, improve health for average Americans and still allow the 1300 companies currently providing healthcare coverage to continue to do so.

The color of the oil gushing from the main pipe in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows the underwater plume has changed in color from medium gray to black. Two scientists noticed the change, which oil company BP downplayed as a natural fluctuation that is not likely permanent.

However, engineering expert witness Robert Glenn Bea, Ph.D., P.E. at the University of California at Berkeley, says the color change may indicate the BP leak has hit a reservoir of more oil and less gas. Gas is less polluting because it evaporates. Bea has spent more than 55 years working and studying oil rigs.

For more, see seattlepi.com.

Appearing before a congressional panel, Toyota Motor Sales USA president James Lentz said the automaker is “taking major steps to become a more responsive, safety-focused organization.” But lawmakers on a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee said the firm has gone to extraordinary efforts to rebut critics – while doing too little research on the nature of the problem.

The hearing centered on Toyota’s efforts to debunk claims that electronic-control systems in the cars may have been at fault. Toyota hired Exponent, a consulting firm, to research the issue. But Representative Waxman and other lawmakers said this effort focused on casting doubt on automotive engineering expert witnesses that plaintiffs may use in court.

Read more: csmonitor.com.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 3.5 million housing units in the U.S. are for seasonal, recreational or occasional use–from big summer estates and time-share condos to A-frame structures and simple fishing cabins.

“That means these homes are unoccupied a good portion of the year,” says homeowner’s insurance expert Charles Valinotti, senior vice president, QBE Regional. He offers tips on how you can minimize property loss and damage for your home away from home:

• Snuff out fire hazards–Valinotti says he’s seen several large losses as a result of portable fire pits, where ashes can smolder long after a homeowner has locked up and left. Before you vacate your vacation home, make sure coals are completely extinguished. Consider signing on with a central-station alarm company that provides services to monitor burglar and fire alarm systems.

Insurance Claims. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 3.5 million housing units in the U.S. are for seasonal, recreational or occasional use–from big summer estates and time-share condos to A-frame structures and simple fishing cabins.

“That means these homes are unoccupied a good portion of the year,” says insurance claims expert Charles Valinotti, senior vice president, QBE Regional. He offers tips on how you can minimize property loss and damage for your home away from home:

• Team up with your neighbors–If there are other seasonal homes in your area, get to know the owners and exchange phone numbers. Keeping an eye on each other’s property is a good way to quickly learn about wind and hail damage–and take care of it before it gets worse. If a full-time resident isn’t nearby, consider hiring someone to periodically patrol your residence.

Medical expert witnesses at Medical Opinions Associates write on tort reform:

Defensive medicine is the hardest to deal with because its impact is difficult to calculate. There is no doubt that there are more medical tests being ordered for fear of medical liability then there would be otherwise. The question is what is the impact. Nobody really knows (GAO 03-836). We do know that medical insurance costs average about 3.2% of average physician revenues. We also know that 5.5% of physicians cause 57.3% of all medical malpractice payouts to patients. Do we approach the problem, as some have suggested, by not interfering with tort claims and instead going after the few transgressors?

Much study still needs to be done, but the end game will not change. As a society, we will have to decide whether we want to prevent or limit the legitimate claims of citizens damaged by medical errors by making it harder to obtain compensation for those errors, or insulate physicians and thus reduce the motivation for defensive medicine in the hope that the cost savings will justify the lost opportunities.

Medical expert witnesses at Medical Opinions Associates write on tort reform:

Well, then, what about medical malpractice insurance premiums? Premiums have increased and there is no doubt about it. The question is WHY have premiums increased. There are authorities who have looked at this issue and concluded that medical malpractice insurance premiums rise NOT just because of increased frequency of litigation or jury awards, but to compensate for poor insurance company investment returns. Robert Hunter, Insurance Director for the Consumer Federation of America recently pointed this out. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (formerly the U.S. General Accounting Office) has reported this several times, the most relevant being GAO 03-702. GAO reported that multiple factors, including falling investment income and rising reinsurance costs, have contributed to increases in premium rates. In one interesting comparison, the GAO report showed that the premiums insurers charge physicians in different locales have such huge variability that the discrepancy cannot be explained by claims incidence alone. If it is true that other factors contribute to premium increases, then it follows that preventing or limiting medical malpractice awards may not result in corresponding premium decreases.

Deborah Lockridge, trucking expert and author of the Heavy Duty Trucking newletter writes this on the EPA and the trucking economy:

As three senators continue work on a bipartisan climate change bill, two trucking groups say future regulation of truck fuel economy should stay where it is, under the Department of Transportation, and not get shifted to the EPA…

The concern is that the new bill will include the same obscure provision regarding heavy-duty truck fuel economy provisions as another bill, S. 1733, the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.” If enacted, these provisions would strip the Department of Transportation of its ability to set fuel economy standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and transfer that authority to the Environmental Protection Agency. The bill was reported out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on November 5, 2009, and a similar bill containing truck fuel economy provisions passed the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009.