Monday, March 29, 2010

DOJ Responds to Freedom of Information Act Request for Suboxone Inspection Material

Looking forward to receiving it in electronic form, not in the form of a massive amount of paper.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

AMA Awareness of DOT Lawsuit

I have had hostile feelings against the AMA, because it does not represent the interests of the clinician. When it shows support for clinical care, I can forgive and forget. I have used their manual on the management of the impaired driver as an example of care. The association of DOT leaders has also supported discretionary reporting of drivers who have shown themselves to be impaired.

One must recall that Pennsylvania DOT requires the reporting of any patient at the time of a list of diagnoses, not after any evidence of impairment.

Disability Council Nominee Not Ready to Lead

22 year old, has Asperger Syndrome. One symptom is endless, mindless lecturing. It will become disruptive. The more these awful bureaucratic bodies are disrupted, the better off the public.

Worst of all is his report calling for laws to prohibit aversive conditioning, restraint, and seclusion in students with disabilities. This shows poor judgment and bias favoring chaos in the class room. This philosophy has become federal law recently, making the jobs of teachers unlivable. Now vicious, mentally disabled predators will assert their rights to attack adults and other children, with full lawyer immunity. Why would anyone pass such a self-defeating, pro-criminality law? The alternative to restraint and negative consequences? Greater staffing. The real losers? Taxpayers. These children who will yield zero return on educational investment, now generate massive government make work. The other winners, lawyers suing teachers for trying to prevent injuries. Students who are violent will be forced on entire classes, and learning can stop for hours until the rage attacks ends, perhaps hours later.

I strongly urge the victims of these vicious predators to sue the Federal government, and state officials, including this nominee. If these pro-criminal advocates want to set guidelines, they should be held accountable for all injuries resulting from their advocacy.


March 27, 2010
Nominee to Disability Council Is Lightning Rod for Dispute on Views of Autism
By AMY HARMON

When President Obama nominated Ari Ne’eman to the National Council on Disability, many families touched by autism took it as a positive sign. Mr. Ne’eman would be the first person with the disorder to serve on the council.

But he has since become the focus of criticism from other advocates who disagree with his view that society ought to concentrate on accepting autistic people, not curing them.

A hold has been placed on Mr. Ne’eman’s nomination, which requires Senate confirmation. Whether the hold is related to the criticism of Mr. Ne’eman (pronounced NAY-men) and what it might take to lift it is unclear.

But Mr. Ne’eman, the 22-year-old founder of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, seems to be a lightning rod for a struggle over how autism will be perceived at a time when an estimated 1 in 100 American children and teenagers are given such a diagnosis.

Mr. Ne’eman is at the forefront of a growing movement that describes autism as a form of “neurodiversity” that should be embraced and accommodated, just as physical disabilities have led to the construction of ramps and stalls in public restrooms for people with disabilities. Autism, he and others say, is a part of their identity.

But that viewpoint, critics say, represents only those on the autism spectrum who at least have basic communication skills and are able to care of themselves.

“Why people have gotten upset is, he doesn’t seem to represent, understand or have great sympathy for all the people who are truly, deeply affected in a way that he isn’t,” said Jonathan Shestack, a co-founder of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, whose mission is to help finance research to find a cure.

Tarasoff Duty to Warn Increases Homicide Rate by 9%, after Enactment

Tarasoff warnings thus represent medical malpractice, violating the duty to do no harm. If any plaintiff expert asserts the Tarasoff decision, I would appreciate getting the name.

Doing Their Duty: An Empirical Analysis of the Unintended Effect of Tarasoff v Regents on Homicidal Activity

Griffin Sims Edwards
Emory University, Department of Economics


January 29, 2010

Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 10-61

Abstract:
The effect of state duty to warn laws inspired by Tarasoff v Regents has been debated for decades. Required reporting of patient threats to the authorities and potential victims gives incentive to the mental health professional to not meet with the most at risk patients, or at very least make the current state of the law abundantly clear to the patient as to suggest suppression of the most at risk statements leaving the psychologist in liability-free ignorance to the true mental state of the patient. As a result, the mental help needed to treat the patient may be foregone and violence may ensue. Exploiting the variation in the timing and style of duty to warn laws across states, I use a fixed effects model to find that, all else equal and controlling for the prevalence of crack, mandatory duty to warn laws cause an increase in homicides of 9.5% or 0.83 people per 100,000. These results are robust to model specifications, falsification tests, and help to clarify the true, albeit unintended, affect of state duty to warn laws.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Reply to a Motion to Dismiss on the Pleading

If the case gets past this point, discovery will follow.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Rare Good News for the Victims of Government Bullying, $6.5 Million Verdict Against Government Inspectors

A rare instance of accountability.


Philly.com
Business
Verdict against DEP employees' actions stirs fears
Posted: 03/11/2010 5:38 PM

By Chris Mondics
Inquirer Staff Writer

A federal jury's verdict that four Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection employees are liable for $6.5 million in damages stemming from a series of disputed enforcement actions has triggered shock waves in Harrisburg, where officials are voicing concern that they will be held personally liable for efforts to uphold environmental laws.

The verdict, by a jury in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, found that the four DEP employees had launched an intensive crackdown on MFS Inc., of Bethlehem, a now-defunct manufacturer of industrial insulation and ceiling tiles, as retaliation after the company complained to state lawmakers about unfair treatment.

"We are really concerned by the verdict, and we have a motion pending before [U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky] to have the verdict thrown out," said DEP Secretary John Hanger. "I believe it is a miscarriage of justice."

Hanger added that the state would also, if necessary, pay the costs of the jury award - a clear signal of concern in Harrisburg, observers said, that the verdict could cause individual DEP officials to pull back and overall undermine enforcement actions in a department that has suffered through a series of budget cuts and downsizing.

Wayne C. Stansfield of Reed Smith L.L.P. in Philadelphia, who is representing MFS, declined to comment yesterday on the verdict.

The case has drawn attention from a wide variety of environmental lawyers and officials, who described it as highly unusual. Typically, state government workers are protected by the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which bars lawsuits against government agencies exercising normal duties.

In this instance, MFS overcame the sovereign-immunity barrier by alleging that the DEP officials individually violated its constitutional right of due process and free speech by improperly enforcing environmental laws and acting outside the scope of their employment.

"I see this as a problem on the enforcement side," said Joel Bolstein, deputy secretary of the DEP from 1995 to 1998 and an environmental lawyer with the Philadelphia firm Fox Rothschild L.L.P. "Up until now, state workers in this agency never imagined that they could be subject to a discrimination claim and personal liability for making a decision on a permit."

The employees, who were sued as individuals, are Michael Bedrin, director of the DEP's northeast regional office; Thomas DiLazaro, former air-quality program manager, who retired; Mark Wejksner, the current air-quality program manager; and Sean Robbins, a lawyer with the agency.

According to papers filed in the case, the dispute dates to late 2001, when the DEP issued a violation notice to MFS for odors allegedly coming from its plant.

Little more than a year later, the DEP issued another citation, a field-enforcement order, late on a Friday afternoon that required the company to respond by the following Monday.

MFS responded by complaining to lawmakers in Harrisburg, who were not identified in the complaint. At least one wrote the DEP expressing concern about the enforcement action.

Shortly thereafter, DEP officials lodged 13 citations against MFS in a two-week period, the documents say. One of the defendants in the case allegedly told an MFS official that he had been irked that the company sought a political solution by reaching out to elected lawmakers.

In an opinion issued last year denying a request that the case be thrown out, Slomsky, quoting press coverage of the case, said one of the defendants, DiLazaro, had declared that "MFS is definitely a nuisance."

The company alleged that DEP officials knew there was another potential source of odor, a nearby sewage-treatment plant. MFS denied that it was the source of the odors and alleged that the DEP never proved otherwise.

...

Contact staff writer Chris Mondics at 215-854-5957 or cmondics@phillynews.com.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Doctor Collects from Insurance in Small Claims Court

This is straight collections of debt in small bundled amounts in Small Claims. The doctor represented himself, but did his legal homework, in anticipating and finding the rebuttal for the company's arguments.

I would like to see many doctors go beyond debt for services to patients, to charging for filling out pre-authorization forms, spending time on the telephone for approval, for retrieval of medical records. These are for the benefit of the insurance company. They represent contract in law, generating a debt called quantum meruit.

From the article.

Fla. doctor beats insurer -- in small claims court

In the Courts. By Amy Lynn Sorrel, amednews staff. Posted March 1, 2010.

Physicians are not known for taking health insurer payment abuses lying down, having marched big carriers into state and federal courtrooms in a series of successful class-action lawsuits over the years.

But one Florida physician caught an insurance giant from an angle it was not expecting when he launched an attack in small claims court. The dermatologist's strategy: to win back the roughly $130,000 he contends Humana Inc. owed his practice in unpaid bills since at least 2007, even if it took filing a few small claims at a time.

The strategy worked. The doctor has recouped nearly all of the money."If doctors have a legitimate right to be paid based on services they provided, insurance companies should pay. And if they think they can get away with nonpayment, [doctors] should be aggressive in whatever manner it takes," said Steven Rosenberg, MD, president of Palm Beach Dermatology Inc. in West Palm Beach.

Letters to Humana seeking to resolve the claims on behalf of himself and other doctors in his practice brought no recourse. After his lawyer wrote to the insurer, Dr. Rosenberg said he got a promise from Humana that it would expedite the claims.

"But here we were a year and a half later, and we were still doing this process," he said. "We basically kept getting the runaround, and we got frustrated that Humana was not responding to all our efforts."

He explored hiring an attorney to take his case to civil court. But the 40% contingency fee that would have come from whatever judgment the practice collected was not appealing.

At that point, Dr. Rosenberg put his medical research skills to work. He discovered that for the same $350 he paid the attorney to write to Humana he could file a petition against the company in Palm Beach County small claims court, where parties can represent themselves.

Because damages could not exceed $5,000 per claim, Dr. Rosenberg bundled a few bills together worth that amount, filled out a simple claim form, attached a check and, in the fall of 2009, sued the insurer in small claims court for violating Florida's prompt-payment law.

"Palm Beach Dermatology Inc. has worked for the last 29 months to remedy the issue via Humana's claims appeal/special projects process and through their appointed attorney with no resolution," the one-page complaint stated.
Legal maneuvering

Dr. Rosenberg was met in court by an attorney Humana sent to defend the case. But he was familiar with his legal rights, having been a past president of the Florida Society of Dermatology & Dermatologic Surgery and a former state medical board member, so he successfully rebuffed some of the lawyer's legal maneuvers.

When the attorney tried to argue that the dermatology practice did not obtain the requisite prior authorization before treating patients, the doctor countered that state law gave patients direct access to dermatologists without a referral. And to the insurer's contention that Palm Beach Dermatology failed to first collect payment from patients before seeking reimbursement from the insurer, Dr. Rosenberg fired back that state law prohibited such practices.

Then came a settlement offer. Humana agreed to pay the first set of claims and the doctor's filing fees, totaling $5,340, according to a court judgment dated Oct. 6, 2009. Dr. Rosenberg said the case was heard within a month of filing the lawsuit and resolved the same day.

But he warned Humana's lawyer that the case was only the beginning. "I told him this was the first of 25 claims we were going to be filing."

He took the insurer to court a second time and won again in January. Shortly after he filed the second case, Dr. Rosenberg said the practice began receiving checks in the mail from Humana totaling $90,000.

The insurer sent two representatives to the office to go through the remaining outstanding claims. Since then, Humana has restituted nearly all of the $130,000 Palm Beach Dermatology was owed, Dr. Rosenberg said. "We didn't really know if it was going to work but figured it was worth a try. Obviously, Humana got the message this was going to cost them."

Monday, March 8, 2010

East Brunswick, NJ, Traffic Court - Careless Driving Charge

I recommend attending this court for its entertainment and eye opening effects. The high school honor student with a little alcohol in her breathalyzer test received the maximum sentence permissible under the law. The obviously illegal alien testifying from jail on closed circuit television has no identification papers. So what does the judge do? She dismissed the charges.

I demand full discovery on the state police. The information on the police officer is highly relevant because there is no objective measurement of careless driving. This female judge refuses to grant this request. I reserve my objection for a future appeal.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

DEA Opens Campaign to Intimidate and Deter Doctors Prescribing Buprenorphine (Suboxone), Then Hypocritically Plays Innocent

The real reason for this campaign?

The Congress wanted more buprenorphine used. The DEA does not want this expensive, brand name medication used in poorer, dark skinned patients. They want the latter on cheap methadone. Even the inspectors may have no awareness of the real motivation.

Doctors feel intimidated. There is an infinite number of deficiencies to be found in every record on earth. There is no evidence that record keeping correlates with quality of care, with patient outcomes, with the prevention of diversion, with fewer overdose deaths.

I filed Freedom of Information Act requests for all buprenorphine related training materials, communications and policy discussions.