NH is One of Fourteen States To Sue Amgen over Aranesp Promotion

According to this Thompson report, 14 states, including New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia have filed suit against Amgen for alleged use kickbacks in the promotion of anemia drug Aranesp. Other states named in the report as also participating in the suit are California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Tennessee and Virginia. Read more here.

States Attorneys General.

UnionLeader.com - Study: NH has high quality, high costs for health care

Manchester, NH — Friday, Aug. 21, 2009
NH has high quality, high costs for health care

A few facts from the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies:

• 18.1 of the gross state product goes to health care spending
  
• Overall health care spending per person was $8,235
• Family health insurance premiums average $12,686
• About 6.5 percent of children in the state have no health insurance
• State sees more emergency room visits per 1,000 residents than the U.S. median, at 471 versus 401 nationally

See full article here.

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New Hampshire Appeals Ruling Denying Malpractice Fund Claim

By NORMA LOVE 08.05.09, 04:55 PM EDT

CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire has appealed a lower court ruling denying its claim to a $110 million surplus in a fund that underwrites malpractice insurance...

See full AP article on Forbes.com.

Lawsuit targets hospital in 2007 hostage incident

UnionLeader.com - Lawsuit targets hospital in '07 hostage incident - Wednesday, May. 27, 2009

DOVER, NH — According to this Union Leader article, Leeland Eisenberg has filed suit against Frisbie Memorial Hospital for failure to treat his mental illness. Eisenberg later held hostages at Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, NH.

"The suit, filed this month in Strafford County Superior Court, claims that Rochester-based Frisbie and its psychiatric care provider, Community Partners, violated federal law and the New Hampshire patient's bill of rights by not adequately treating his mental health and substance abuse problems."

To read the full article on UnionLeader.com, click here.

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In NH, Governor Eyes Medical Malpractice Insurance Fund Surplus to Balance Budget

Sourced from the Keene Sentinel's full text of Gov. John Lynch's remarks to Legislature on Feb. 12, related to Medical Malpractice Insurance Fund.

"Today, I am recommending three steps to fill the remaining budget gap. First, the federal Medicaid increase expected this year will reduce that shortfall by approximately $50 million. Second, in the 1980s, the legislature established a medical malpractice insurance fund, exempt from state taxes. Over the years, this fund has built up a $110 million surplus. Under the law, the fund’s insurance premiums must be competitive with the rest of the market – and in fact its premiums are on average 10 percent below market. It cannot return this surplus without risking decimating the private insurance market. We recommend using $50 million of that fund’s surplus to help fill the remaining budget gap for fiscal year 2009 so that we can protect essential health services."

Read full text of remarks here: NH budget.

New Hampshire Lawmakers Debate Repeal of Medical Malpractice Screening Panels

New Hampshire lawmakers working to repeal a 2005 medical malpractice reform law that they deem to be a failure "face stiff opposition from the law's supporters, including doctors, hospitals and members of the insurance industry." This according to a report in The Union Leader, on Jan. 11, 2009, "Rep. Robert Rowe, R-Amherst, has filed legislation to repeal the law mandating three-member panels screen all medical malpractice lawsuits before they go to trial."

To read the full report, click here.

Avg. Amount of Medical Malpractice Claims Paid in New Hampshire Is $400K

The average amount for a medical malpractice claim paid in the state of New Hampshire is $405,915. This according to statistics compiled by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, whose statehealthfacts.org web site lists this 2007 number for New Hampshire. It also lists the total paid in 2007 NH claims as $16,642,500, so we can deduce that there were 41 paid claims in New Hampshire in 2007.

The web site offers comparative statistics on medical malpractice claims paid in all 50 states. Leading the pack in total dollars paid is New York state with $674,683,750 (an average of $441,547 per claim paid). For more information, see the Kaiser web site, click on: med mal claims paid data.

NH Attorney Weighs in on Screening Panel Debate

Recent attention to New Hampshire's law on medical malpractice screening panels, including recent pieces in the Concord Monitor, seems to feature a "he said-she said" debate between doctors and lawyers, leaving out the most important parties: the victims of malpractice.

Read the editorial by Attorney Dugan here: What about the victims?

To understand the opposing viewpoint, read this previously published My Turn column by Dr. Oglesby Young: Screening malpractice suits is lowering costs

File under: medical malpractice nh