My good friend and fellow Kentucky acdident lawyer Hans Poppe mentioned a great practice resource to me the other day. Legal Talk Network is an interactive internet radio network for attorneys. Offerings range from "Conversations with F. Lee Bailey" to a show called "Coast to Coast", with Robert Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams from Law.com.
Very interesting stuff and well worth the time.
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The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has released the Fourth Edition of its book "Patient Safety Essentials for Health Care." This is a valuable reference which should be in the library of any Kentucky malpractice lawyer.
The blurb: "This book is the complete guide to the Joint Commission's safety standards for ambulatory care, behavioral health care, critical access hospital, home care, hospital, and long term care organizations. It includes the standards, rationales, elements of performance, and scoring information in one handy resource. This book also identifies the commonalities among the standards to help readers understand which standards apply to which settings."
Order it for $75.00 here.
Thanks to John Day of MedMalBlog.com for bringing this important resource to our attention.
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Kentucky accident attorneys take note: Ahlborn may extend to Medicare
In a significant victory for injured plaintiffs, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on May 1st that state Medicaid agencies’ claims for reimbursement out of tort settlements are limited to that portion of any settlement attributable to past medical expenses. The ruling means that the agencies may not lay claim to any portion of a plaintiff’s recovery for lost wages, pain and suffering, permanent disability or other future damages. Arkansas Dept. of Health and Human Services v. Ahlborn, 126 S.Ct. 1752 (2006).Medicaid is not the only federal health care program that has asserted a right to priority repayment out of tort settlements; ATLA members report similar claims by Medicare.
We believe that Ahlborn’s logic should control repayment claims by other federal programs, such as those asserted under the Medical Care Recovery Act (“MCRA”) and the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (“MSPA”), despite differences in the language of each statute, because the basic structure of the repayment obligation is the same under all three federal statutes and because all three acts share a common congressional purpose.
In our view, plaintiffs’ counsel should begin to treat the decision in Ahlborn as controlling in cases involving Medicare and other federally-funded health care programs and should be on the lookout for an appropriate case to seek to extend the holding in Ahlborn.
TO READ THE ENTIRE OPINION LETTER, CLICK HERE: Download Opinion Letter from CCL
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One of the best trial consultants in the country, Becky Jones of Modlin & Jones Trial Consulting in Northern Kentucky, has come up with some Top 5 lists for trial lawyers for out blog. Her first installment is below. These tips apply in personal injury, medical malpractice or even insurance bad faith cases.
TOP 5 TRUTHS ABOUT PRE-TRIAL RESEARCH
1. The purpose of pre-trial research (discussion groups, focus groups, mock trials) is not to win the exercise, but to learn how to avoid losing.
2. The purpose of pre-trial research is to learn what questions the jurors will ask.
3. Listen to how research participants speak. They talk like jurors, not lawyers.
4. Don’t simply ask participants what they believe. Ask them why they believe it.
5. Use your research to help you evaluate the best way to resolve your case (i.e. mediation, arbitration, summary jury trial, or jury trial).
contributed by:
Becky S. Jones
Modlin & Jones Trial Consulting
130 Dudley Road, Suite 120
Edgewood, KY 41017
(859) 341-7170
(859) 341-7173 Fax
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