A Multnomah County jury in December 2003 found that Farmers Insurance acted in bad faith and systematically defrauded thousands of Oregon policyholders by failing to reimburse the full amount of their medical expenses from automobile accidents. After a five week trial, the jury returned a verdict of $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $8 million … Read more
Physicians and their office staffs are often frustrated by the Personal Injury Protection (“PIP”) system. You may want to pass this article along to the head of your billing office. All passenger auto liability policies in Oregon are required to provide PIP coverage for prompt payment of reasonable and necessary medical expenses resulting from an … Read more
If your patient has a personal injury claim, there is a good chance that your medical records will be sifted for certain data to be fed into a computer. Insurance companies created and employ a program called “Colossus” which compares your patients claim against those of other accident victims across the country. This comparison is used too … Read more
In a June 2003 decision, the Oregon Court of Appeals found that Farmers Insurance Company had breached its contract to provide personal injury protection (PIP) benefits when it failed to preauthorize the full cost of knee replacement surgery necessitated by automobile accident injuries. The Court affirmed the jury verdict awarding $26,000 in economic damages and … Read more
Fibromyalgia is the subject of varying opinions among medical professionals. It is certainly controversial in the medical-legal arena. One area of disagreement is its etiology: What causes fibromyalgia? More specifically, in the context of personal injury lawsuits: Is fibromyalgia caused by traumatic injuries? If so, can it result in disability? In a recent personal injury … Read more
When we contacted Dr. Goodwin and Dr. Bennett for their comments on the fibromyalgia article in this issue, both of them had more to say. Dr. Goodwin addressed an apparent widespread misunderstanding concerning psychogenic pain. He also stressed the importance of distinguishing FMS from other pain syndromes and a rheumatologic disorder of similar presentation. Contrary … Read more
You have been treating a patient who was involved an accident. You may have wondered if this would result in litigation and your being asked to testify. Sure enough, you are asked (or subpoenaed) to testify in your patient’s personal injury case. Some of you will have had experience testifying in the legal arena and … Read more
Your testimony is probably critical to the outcome of your patient’s injury case. How best to communicate to the jury what you know about your patient’s injury and its effects? To insure a memorable and convincing presentation, keep in mind the old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” and recall the value … Read more
You may have some very definite opinions based on your experience with patients suffering with certain types of symptoms and your study of diseases and injuries. But will your opinion even be admitted for consideration in a Federal Court case? Federal judges have the authority and the responsibility to admit or exclude scientific evidence under … Read more
The first and closing medical reports on treatment of an injury are always key evidence in a personal injury claim. Each item recorded will be scrutinized for what it says and what it does not say. Knowing your reports may eventually be scrutinized by attorneys may affect how you write them. This article discusses what … Read more