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

Largest Medical Malpractice Verdict in NH

The jury award of $1.75 million to a New Hampshire man blinded by improper care while in the emergency department appears to be the largest verdict of the year in NH for a medical malpractice lawsuit for 2008.

The article was reported on by the Union Leader and Boston Globe. For more information on this trial, click on: Largest medical malpractice verdict NH on the attorney's web site.

If you have information on a larger medical malpractice verdict or settlement in NH for 2008 or 2009, please provide information via the "comment" function of this blog. Thank you!

NH Medical Malpractice Screening Effectiveness Panel Needs More Time

New Hampshire doctors and their lawyers claim that state's medical malpractice screening panels save "money and time by encouraging lawsuits to settle but also keep meritless claims from juries," according to this Concord Monitor report.

Medical malpractice attorneys who represent injured patients counter that it's the other way around.

"But all those arguments are based on little more than anecdotal evidence. That's because state officials tracking the two key elements — the outcome of medical malpractice lawsuits and the state's malpractice insurance rates — say they need more time and more information."

See the full article here: Malpractice screening debated.

Also covered by Fox44 Burlington: Malpractice Screening Under Scrutiny in NH

New Hampshire Hospitals Not Required To Report Medical Errors

MANCHESTER, NH — The Union Leader recently ran a two-part report on medical errors in New Hampshire.

The first article, In-hospital errors kill thousands in U.S., but go unreported in New Hampshire, reports that as of Oct. 1, Medicare stopped reimbursing hospitals for some medical errors, or "never events," also referred to as "adverse medical events." Never events have become an insurance/reimbursement issue, a quality care issue and a public health issue. The article states:

"Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire, the state's largest insurer with 600,000 members, stopped reimbursing hospitals for 11 never events in April and plans to add more to the list. Its list includes surgery on the wrong body part or wrong patient, wrong surgery and several infections, fractures, crushing injuries and burns acquired in the hospital.

Dr. Richard Lafleur, medical director for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire, said: "We are not looking at huge savings, but one never event is too many. Our goal is to get to zero."

But even he doesn't know how many never events occur in New Hampshire hospitals. Lafleur said Anthem relied on national data that was also used in the Medicare push to eliminate reimbursement for never events. By definition, never events are clearly identifiable, preventable, and serious in their consequences.

Anthem is working with hospitals and doctors to analyze how and why such errors occur and to change practices to make sure they don't happen, he said."

In NH hospitals not required to publicize mistakes, it is reported that 26 states plus the District of Columbia have reportable medical error systems in place, according to the National Academy of State Health Policies. New Hampshire is the only New England state without such a system. Rep. Peter Batula plans to propose legislation regarding hospital errors in the next legislative session.

For more details and analysis, click on the article links above to read the articles on the Union Leader web site.

NH Medical Malpractice News

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