Law Firm Resources & News

A Missouri company that owned 11 nursing homes and it former CEO recently pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to defraud Medicare and Medicaid by charging the federal government for nursing home care that was so poor as to be almost non-existent. The company, American Healthcare Management, Inc., and its CEO, Robert Wachter, were…

Here in Roanoke – we have an interesting local issue regarding Health Care. The largest local hospital has announced a long range plan to associate most local doctors – what this means is the doctors will become employees of the hospital (or a subsidiary corporation) and they will no longer practice with or for their…

Check out USA Today – today, http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2006-10-15-health-concern-usat_x.htm. A USA Today poll regarding the quality and costs of the U.S. healthcare system found that a “growing unease” has brought on a desire for a major reform. Eighty percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the amount the nation spends on healthcare, which has been estimated to be…

Back in June of this year we published a short article on the problems caused by drug-coated cardiac stents. Our article directed readers to a study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. It seemed there was a higher rate of blood clot formation with the use of drug-coated stents as compared to un-coated stents.…

Ann Richards, the former Texas governor, recently died from complications arising from esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer is one of the fastest-rising forms of cancer and, unfortunately, it is rarely diagnosed early. The form of cancer which killed Ann Richards, squamous cell, is often associated with a history of heavy tobacco and alcohol use – both…

In this article in the Senior Journal, you can find several tips on how to reduce the cost of your long term care insurance. A summary of the tips is as follows: The first suggestion is to choose a shorter benefit period. The majority of people will not need more than 5 years of coverage,…

In July, Dan wrote a quick blog about the Institute of Medicine’s report on medication errors. In sum, IOM disclosed that 1.5 million Americans are harmed every-year by medication errors. Are you ok with this? We are not talking about 1.5 million Americans who die of cancer because there is no cure – we are…

Want to know some interesting facts about the nursing home industry? How about these? – 16,995 nursing home facilities – 52 percent of these are owned by a chain, with multiple facilities owned by one company – 107 beds is the average size of a nursing home – 83 percent is the average occupancy rate…

A federal law (OBRA) enacted in 1987 established a survey and inspection process for nursing homes which required the facilities to meet certain standards of care. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has responsibility for enforcing these standards but delegates the inspection and survey process to the various states. The problem: states are…

Let’s assume you are in an automobile accident and you forgot to wear your seat belt and your chest struck the steering wheel at impact. Or, your seat belt was used but the abrupt front-end collision resulted in pain across your chest from the seat belt engaging. Either way, you are taken to your local…

Are you on any medications? Here is a great idea – look them up on the internet. Go to the manufacturer’s website – read not only the information for consumers/patients, but look at the links for physicians. Is the information on those two links different – you bet it is. So look at both, and…