Long Island Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Cassisi & Cassisi Law Firm : Car Accidents, Construction Injuries : New York City Metro Area

Hospitals are supposed to be places where people get well. Unfortunately, hospitals are sometimes places where injuries occur. New York State’s three largest medical insurers – Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Oxford and HIP - now want to stop paying hospitals when preventable adverse events or malpractice occur. The insurers plan to implement language in their policies prohibiting the hospital from billing the carrier for the subsequent treatment required as a result of hospital errors. 

This is a move to lower the financial burden of health care insurers – who eventually pass the costs on to their insured. Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield confirmed in a Long Island Business News article in the March 21, 2008 edition, that the insurer is working with physicians and hospitals to identify preventable adverse events. The rub comes from the definition of a “preventable adverse event”. Beginning in October 2008, Medicare will no longer reimburse hospitals for care related to eight different errors occurring during the patient’s stay. 

 Is it an attempt by insurers to help improve the quality of care at hospitals or a way to reduce their costs? The answer is probably both.  

Some of the errors Insurers have identified as preventable include:

·         Incompatible blood transfusion

·         An object left in a patient after surgery

·         Air embolisms

Many hospitals no longer bill insurers for obvious and serious preventable errors such as performing surgery on the wrong patient or the wrong body part.

If the measure by the insurance companies improves the quality of care for patients by making hospitals more diligent about error prevention, because they won’t get reimbursed for their liability by the insurance company, the measure is a good one. However, if it increases the financial burden on hospitals, it will not be good for hospitals. Doctors are increasingly leery of things that are couched in quality and safety and really amount to nothing more than cost-cutting.

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The New York State’s highest court recently ruled in favor of a dog owner upholding the state’s venerable “one-bite rule”. Here’s what happened and what you need to know if you or someone you know is injured by a dog bite.

A Labrador mix Scooter bit an 8 year old girl in a Bridgehampton toy store in 2003 and the girl need more than 40 stitches. The girl’s parents promptly filed suit against the dog owner. The defense proved during trial that Scooter had never behaved viciously before. The dog’s owner was found not to be liable for damages to the girl because he did not have any prior notice or knowledge of the dog’s vicious propensities. In New York State there is a 180 year old body of common law that suggests owners are not liable in animal attacks as long as their pets had never behaved aggressively in the past. The victim’s attorney challenged the law saying the court failed to protect New Yorkers by refusing to overrule and reverse an old rule that leaves children and adults at risk. 

The court upheld the law that says as long as your dog hasn’t bit, lunged, growled at or jumped on people before the owner is not liable. The result, dogs essentially get “one free bite”. 

What it comes down to for people who have been injured by a dog bite, is having an experienced attorney who can deeply and thoroughly investigate the dog and it’s owners past history to frame for the court sufficient evidence to prove liability.

To learn more about what to do in the event of dog bites, listen to Frank Cassisi’s pod cast on dog bites. 

www.cassisilaw.com/2008/01/articles/podcasts-1/podcast-dog-bites-and-undocumented-workers-rights/

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Millions of Americans suffer brain injuries each year and thousands are left permanently disabled. The disabilities are physical, cognitive, behavioral, and/or emotional in nature.

There are two types of brain injury that can have permanent and devastating effects and can even lead to death: traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury.

When there is an external blow to the head with some type of force, traumatic brain injury (TBI) can result. A few of the common causes of TBI are auto accidents; firearm accidents; premises liability accidents; and accidents incurred playing active sports such as rollerblading, hockey, and basketball. TBI may also result from incidents where the head is violently shaken or there is a blow to the skull. Shaken baby syndrome and high-speed auto accidents are two very common causes of TBI.

There are three levels of TBI: mild, moderate, and severe. A mild traumatic brain injury is classified as a brief loss of consciousness. A moderate traumatic brain injury is characterized by loss of consciousness that lasts from a few minutes to a few hours, with the resulting impairment of motor skills ranging from several weeks to permanent. A severe traumatic brain injury involves an extended unconscious state or coma (this may range from days to years).

When there is a disruption in the oxygen flow to the brain, this is referred to as an acquired brain injury (ABI). ABIs often result from stroke, aneurysm, heart attack, tumors, infectious disease, airway obstruction, crushing injuries to the chest, drug abuse, infectious disease, and/or meningitis. Additionally, reckless conduct on the part of a second party, including medical malpractice and medical negligence, can cause ABI. ABIs can affect reasoning skills and cognitive thought patterns, and may cause lapses in memory and reduced physical and mental abilities, along with several other traits and impaired body functions.

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