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2 Min Read

Protected patient information at stake in Florida case

Data collected in patient safety systems comes with confidentiality protections that encourage physicians to share patient safety information without fear of liability—but a Florida case could impede efforts to improve patient safety, jeopardizing these protections.

Judicial Advocacy
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2 Min Read

Medical staff autonomy upheld in state supreme court ruling

A decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld important tenets of medical staff self-governance and authority in patient care that physicians have been fighting for in that state since 2012.

Judicial Advocacy
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2 Min Read

Court case places patient-physician relationship in the balance

Two essential elements of medical practice—patient privacy and the patient-physician relationship—are at stake in a case before a federal appeals court that involves a state PDMP and surveillance by the DEA.

Judicial Advocacy
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3 Min Read

Physician medical liability funds protected from state raids

Five years after the state government took $100 million from a special medical liability fund in Pennsylvania, a settlement has been reached that provides key protections against future diversion and returns $200 million in overpayments to physicians and other health care providers.

Judicial Advocacy
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1 Min Read

State high court rules for patient safety in liability case

In Allred v. Saunders, the Utah Supreme Court weighed in on an earlier court ruling that required a physician’s peer review files to be produced as evidence in determining medical liability, contrary to a law passed in 2012 that explicitly protects that information in order to preserve the integrity of peer review proceedings.

Judicial Advocacy
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2 Min Read

State high court to rule on expert witnesses in medical liability

The Florida Supreme Court is taking up Edwards v. Sunrise Ophthalmology ASC, in which a lower court had excluded the testimony of an infectious disease specialist, which was offered regarding the standard of care the plaintiff received from her ophthalmologist related to surgery on her lower eyelid.

Judicial Advocacy
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2 Min Read

Record release law for medical liability suits upheld in court

In Murphy v. Dulay, the appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that said a Florida law requiring the release of relevant health information was impermissible under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Judicial Advocacy
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1 Min Read

Oral arguments begin in patient safety case before U.S. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the United States is hearing oral arguments in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC, a case previously decided by a federal appeals court that ruled in favor of the FTC’s claim that state licensure boards should be subject to federal antitrust laws.

Judicial Advocacy
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2 Min Read

Ruling could impede efforts to improve patient safety

The Litigation Center of the AMA and State Medical Societies, the Kentucky Medical Association and more than two dozen patient safety and health care quality groups from around the country have filed a brief with the Kentucky Supreme Court, arguing that the appeals court ruling in Tibbs v. Bunnell would hamper open discussions that are essential to maintaining and improving patient safety.

Judicial Advocacy