Florida cut nursing home reimbursements for Medicaid patients by 3 percent effective January 1, 2008; now paying an average of just $7.21 per patient per hour to feed, house and care for nursing home patients. “Personally, I pay my children’s babysitter more,” Mark Niemeyer, an administrator with administrator of Adventist Care Centers-Courtland, told the […]

A Florida jury has ordered Mitsubishi to pay $11 million in compensatory damages to the parents of a 25-year-old man who died after being partially ejected from a 2000 Montero SUV. Attorneys for Donna and Peter Laliberte argued that Mitsubishi knew about seat belt problems with its SUV model and released a newer version […]

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that medical device makers are protected from personal injury lawsuits, so long as the Food and Drug Administration approved the device before it was marketed and it meets the agency’s specifications, The New York Times reports. The types of devices that have been subject of lawsuits in the […]

Medicare plans to hit error-prone hospitals where it hurts: in the pocketbook, according to the Associated Press. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
“Beginning on October 1, Medicare no longer will pay the added costs for eight preventable hospital errors, including catheter-caused urinary tract infections, injuries from falls, and leaving […]

Advertising by lawyers has long been controversial, with detractors saying it cheapens the profession and proponents asserting that ads foster competition and help educate people about their options, according to a Wall Street Journal article. In Florida, requests for bar approval of ads have increased by about 30% in the past seven years, to […]