Vermont House Health Care Bill Includes Closer Look at Med Mal Reform

The Addison County Independent reporting on groundbreaking legislation passed by Vermont House for a single-payer health care system mentions that house bill 202 will also "examine reforms to Vermont’s medical malpractice system..." See the full article: House OKs health care bill with local support.

Vermont Medical Liability/Malpractice Laws

The National Conference of State Legislatures website summarizes the medical liability and malpractice laws by state. The chart is updated as of September 2010. It documents:

• Damage Award Limits or Cap
• Statute of Limitation
• Joint and Several Liability
• Limits on Attorney Fees
• Periodic Payments
• Patient Compensasion or Injury Fund
• Doctor Apologies/Sympathetic Gestures
• Pre-trial Alternative Dispute Resolution and Screening Panels
• Affidavit or Certificate of Merit
• Expert Witness Standards
• Medical or Peer Review Panels

Click here to view Vermont's Medical Liability and Malpractice Laws.

Insure.com Ranks Vermont as Least Costly State for Car Insurance Rates

Foster City, CA March 14, 2011 – Insure.com released a national survey today of car insurance rates by state. The rankings reveal above-average rates in Michigan, Louisiana and Oklahoma and lower-than-average car insurance premiums in Vermont and South Carolina. Surprisingly, a consumer’s driving record is not always the biggest factor in determining prices. Instead, Insure.com found that a number of non-driver-related factors have a significant effect on the average cost of car insurance for consumers in different states.

The percentage of uninsured drivers in a given state, along with other factors like weather and state insurance laws, are in large part what determine the average cost of auto insurance premiums.

According to Amy Danise, senior managing editor of Insure.com,

“We often think of car insurance prices strictly in terms of our own personal details, like our driving record and our coverage amount, but Insure.com’s rankings demonstrate how factors like state laws and the judicial system can be the driving force behind high rates.”

Michigan holds the spot as the most expensive place for auto insurance because it’s the only state that guarantees unlimited personal injury protection payments by law, which is very costly for insurance companies. Louisiana is the second most expensive state because of its judicial system, which generally favors individuals--meaning that insurance companies tend to lose in court, again driving up costs for insurers. By comparison, a representative driver in Vermont pays 87 percent less for insurance coverage than the same driver in Michigan because of the lower level of traffic congestion in Vermont and the large number of insurers competing for business.

Vermont Law Makers Mull Med Mal Reform

An Associated Press report in several news outlets indicates that Vermont legislators are seriously considering medical malpractice reform as a way to lower health care costs.

"In debates over health care reform both at the state and federal level, the issue of medical malpractice claims often gets raised, with a particular focus on the defensive medicine doctors are said to perform to prevent potential lawsuits."

The AP reported the chairman of the Judiciary Committee is recommending a study of the malpractice system as a way to lower costs..

Helmet Safety Advocacy Starts in VT

Dr. Robert Williams, founder of the nonprofit group PHAT (“Protect Your Head At All Times’’), is the helmet safety advocate from Vermont Children's Hospital behind PHAT helmet program...
Williams making headway - The Boston Globe

Heavy Trucks Forced Back onto Vermont Back Roads

Bloomberg news service carries news story about a traffic laws that force heavy trucks off the interstate to use back roads to pass through small towns across Maine and Vermont. The article reports...

"A pilot project that allowed trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds onto interstate highways in the two states ended in December, forcing trucks filled with petroleum, gravel, paper products and other heavy loads back onto state roads that pass through residential areas and business districts."

To read the full article, click on: Bloomberg Heavy Trucks.

17 Medical Malpractice Claims Paid in Vermont in 2009

According to data compiled by StateHealthFacts.org, a website of the Henery J. Kaiser Family Foundation, there were 17 medical malpractice claims paid in Vermont in 2009 for a total of $6,845,000 — that's an average of $402,647 for paid claims. Vermont ranked 46th in the nation for total paid claims. In 2008, Vermont ranked 45th with $10,908,550 in total claims paid. For more state health data on Vermont, see: Vermont State Health Facts.

Vermont Ranked Healthiest State in the Nation

The 2011 American Health Rankings® puts Vermont on top as the healthiest state in the nation.

Vermont has topped the list of healthiest states for the last four years of published reports. Vermont has had a steady climb in the Rankings for the last twelve years from a ranking of 17th in the 1997 and 1998 Editions.

Vermont's strengths as a healthy state include:

• a high rate of high school graduation with 88.6 percent of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years,
• ready access to early prenatal care with 83.5 percent of pregnant women receiving prenatal care in the first trimester,
• a low rate of uninsured population at 9.6 percent,
• high public health funding at $177 per person,
• a low percentage of children in poverty at 12.0 percent of persons under age 18 and
• ready availability of primary care physicians with 170.7 primary care physicians per 100,000 population. 

Vermont's challenges include a high prevalence of binge drinking at 17.3 percent of the population and moderate immunization coverage with 89.8 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving immunizations. 

To learn more, you can click here to view the Vermont e-rating report card (or any other state).  

The report also shows that since 1990, Vermont decreased cardiovascular deaths from 401.7 to 241.1 per 100,000 population. These successes indicate that change is possible for all states when there is a united front to make progress on health outcomes.

Alan Sylvester Named Lawyer of the Year 2011 by Best Lawyers® for Personal Injury Litigation

Burlington, VT — Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named Alan Sylvester as the “Best Lawyers' 2011 Burlington, Vermont Personal Injury Litigation Lawyer of the Year.”

After more than a quarter of a century in publication, Best Lawyers is designating “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.”

Alan has been representing personal injury claimants since 1964, and is a founding partner in the law firm of Sylvester & Maley. A Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1982, Alan has been recognized by his peers as one of the top personal injury trial lawyers in Vermont for the past 4 decades. Alan has extensive experience in handling complex, serious, personal injury cases. He has been successful in recovering by jury verdict and settlement sums ranging between $1,000,000.00 and $5,400,000.00 for his clients on 20 occasions.

Sylvester is known for taking on the skiing and sports industry in the precedent setting case of Sunday v. Stratton, 136 Vt. 293 (1978). In that case, he alleged the defendant was negligent in the maintenance of one of its ski trails thereby causing the plaintiff to fall and suffer personal injuries rendering him a quadriplegic. After a several week trial, the jury awarded the plaintiff $1,500,000.00.

Vermont Patient Safety Data Available

From The Hill

Patient safety data made available: Comparative data on patient safety and hospital quality are available online for the first time thanks to the The Commonwealth Fund’s WhyNotTheBest.org. The new measures, developed by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, are available from data submitted by hospitals in nine states: Arizona, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington.

Report Names Vermont Least Successful in Med Mal Reform

A report by Pacific Research Institute (PRI) names Vermont, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Iowa as the least successful in improving their malpractice laws. According to an online news item from Health Care News published by the Heartland Institute (whoever they are):

“Vermont has no limits on noneconomic or punitive damages, no limits on how much of the damages the plaintiffs’ lawyers can seize, offers drug makers or medical-device makers no protection for being in compliance with FDA or FTC regulations, and does not qualify the credentials of expert witnesses at trials...”

Learn more here.

Vermont Medical Malpractice Claims Data

According to 2008 data from The Henry Kaiser Family Foundation's statehealthfacts.org, Vermont led the nation in the average medical malpractice claim amount $839,119 (compared to $352,750 for the previous year). Certainly Vermont did not lead the total number of claims paid or the largest amounts paid. There were only 13 claims paid in Vermont in 2008.

When ranked by total dollars paid, Vermont comes in 45th out of 51 states (including D.C.).

See statehealthfacts.org for more interesting data on Vermont and any other state, such as:

• Total Hospitals
• Hospitals by Ownership
• Beds
• Beds by Ownership
• Admissions
• Admissions by Ownership
• Emergency Room Visits
• Emergency Room Visits by Ownership
• Inpatient Days
• Inpatient Days by Ownership
• Outpatient Visits
• Outpatient Visits by Ownership
• Medical Errors
• Mandatory Quality Reporting Requirement

Doctor and Methadone Clinic Settle in Auto Fatality

NEWFANE, VT - A Vermont man having been treated at a Methadone clinic in Massachusetts had high levels of methadone in his system when he had a head-on auto accident, which killed an 8-year-old girl, according to autopsy results as reported by the Barre Montpelier TimeArgus.com. Lawyers representing the girl's estate claimed the clinic and his personal physician failed to adequately monitor the man, settling the lawsuit for $1.8 million.

The news article states that girl's family sued:

"...Community Health Care Inc., which is based in Chicopee, Mass., and [the doctor] of Putney because of their care of [the man], who had a long history of heroin abuse and erratic driving, according to the suit filed in 2007 in Windham Superior Court. The case against [the doctor], who prescribed anti-anxiety medication for [the man] while he was on methadone, settled out of court in January, according to court records."

Read the full article here: Vermont methadone settlement.

Best Lawyers® Ranks Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Vermont

Who are the best medical malpractice lawyers in Vermont? Best Lawyers®, the annual peer-based listing of the best attorneys in each state, has selected 13 attorneys from the state of Vermont to include in its 2010 annual listing. See the listing here.

Law firm Sylvester & Maley of Burlington, VT is ranked #1 in Vermont for Medical Malpractice Law with 3 attorneys listed: Alan Sylvester, John Maley and Christopher Maley. Each is also listed in the Best Lawyers listing for Personal Injury Litigation.

Vermont Judge Pushes Mediation for Outstanding Cases

The Burlington Free Press reports that...

Judge Helen Toor said Wednesday that she will push to have longstanding cases involving alleged priest sexual abuse and malpractice by a Burlington eye doctor resolved during her stint as presiding judge at Chittenden Superior Court.

Read the full article on BurlingtonFreePress.com.

Vermont Family Is Awarded $1 Million for Death

According to a report in the Concord Monitor,

"The family of a Vermont woman who died following complications from her treatment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center was awarded nearly $1 million by a federal jury this week in medical malpractice and wrongful death awards."

The case was related to complications from an improper IV.

In Vermont, Personal Injury Does Not Include Pet Injury

The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed on May 8, a lower court decision not to introduce non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, into pet litigation.

In its ruling, the court explained that emotional damages are rarely permitted for injuries to others and generally not available for the loss of many close relatives. Therefore, even though pets have special characteristics as personal property and that people have unique emotional attachments to their pets, the court would not expand the law to provide recovery options for pets that are not available in many human-human relationships. To rule otherwise, the court stated, would be "a dramatic alteration to the law."

The Vermont Supreme Court joins a long line of state courts reaffirming the longstanding legal principle that emotional harm damages are not allowed in litigation over pets. In the past few years, state supreme and appellate courts in nearly thirty states have reaffirmed that emotional loss in pet injury and death cases is not compensable under any legal theory. In addition, a 2007 Gallup Poll found an overwhelming majority (63%) of Americans, including pet owners, said that pet owners should only be entitled to actual economic damages, and not pain and suffering-type awards.

See more details from Animal Health Institute.

Carbon Monoxide Lawsuit Is Settled

According to this article in the Burlington Free Press, Vt. victims settle carbon monoxide lawsuits. They include a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning, and a personal injury lawsuit filed by the girlfriend of the man. The death occurred at the Redstone Apartments near UVM in early 2005.

For more information, see the full article.

Wyeth: Company Complied With Law In Vermont Case - FOXBusiness.com

Wyeth: Company Complied With Law In Vermont Case

From FOXBusiness.com

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Personal Injury Settlement - University of Vermont

This via The Burlington Free Press:

"University attorneys agreed to pay $325,000 to Maria Dezotell of Jericho, whose husband, Lyman, 44, was killed as he drove from the Northeast Kingdom to work at IBM in Essex Junction with two colleagues."

According to the report, the plaintiffs claimed that a:

"UVM research team acted negligently by allowing a man involved in testing buprenorphine, a drug to treat heroin addiction, to drive home after taking a dose."

See details and full article at: University of Vermont Lawsuit.

Eye Doctor Cleared of Malpractice

BURLINGTON, VT — The Burlington Free Press carries this story of a Chittenden Superior Court jury clearing a Burlington eye doctor of medical malpractice and fraud after a three-week trial regarding a lawsuit by a patient who claimed "unnecessary cataract surgery." For the full article, click on: Jury Clears Ophthalmologist.

Food Safety: Product Liability - Vermont Couple Sues over Salmonella Outbreak

The Associated Press is reporting that the South Burlington, Vermont couple suing Peanut Corporation of America over the nationwide salmonella outbreak will also sue Kellogg Co., their attorney said yesterday.

In a related story in the Chicago Tribune, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says food producers responsible for "widespread, deadly outbreaks of disease should face jail time, not just fines... Leahy said some food makers won't take federal and state health rules seriously without tougher penalties. According to Leahy: 'Fines won't do it.' "

What's average medical malpractice claim paid in Vermont?

The average amount for a medical malpractice claim paid in Vermont is $352,750. This according to statistics compiled by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, whose statehealthfacts.org web site lists this 2007 number for Vermont. It also list $3,527,500 as the total paid in 2007, so we can interpolate from that that there were 10 paid claims 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.

Vermont Jury Awards $800,000 for Failure to Monitor Coumadin in Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Vermont Jury Awards $800,000 for Failure to Monitor Coumadin

A Franklin County jury returned on October 30, 2008, a $800,000 verdict in a medical malpractice lawsuit to the family of a woman who died while on the blood thinner Coumadin for a history of deep vein thrombosis and a heart condition. Patients on Coumadin require close monitoring of their blood's ability to clot by a test called an INR. Her doctor failed to properly monitor her INR values and as a result, Mrs. Stone's blood became too thin, depleted of clotting factors, and susceptible to uncontrolled bleeding. After grazing her ear, she became unresponsive and was taken to the hospital where her INR was found to be 12.29, a dangerously high level. (The target therapeutic range was 2 to 3.) A CT scan revealed that she had suffered a massive intracranial hemorrhage which caused herniation of her brain. Attorney for the plaintiff was Chris Maley of Sylvester & Maley, Burlington, Vermont.

Facts on Senior, Fall, Injuries in Vermont

An article in the Burlington Free Press, on seniors and falls includes some interesting Vermont facts on falls...

• "One in five hip fracture patients over age 65 die within a year after surgery, and one in four have to spend a year or more recuperating in a nursing home.
• Falls are the leading cause of catastrophic injury in older adults.
• Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths.
• More than 95 percent of hip fractures among those over 65 are caused by falling.
• Vermont has one of the highest rates of death from falls nationwide."

To read the entire article, click on: seniors who fall.