How does a solo attorney effectively fight the Insurance Giants? Part 2

Think of all the important steps in this litigation that need to occur quickly:

• Filing for jurisdiction in a MVA - accident occurs in Montana, other cars are housed in North Dakota
• Determining causation - client has preexisting back surgeries, osteoporosis, or complex medical records from a stay in an intensive care unit
• Working on the Bad Faith issues

Solo attorneys need someone to assist with all the medical issues, such as:

o Screen case for merit
o Provide medical research/ literature review
o Develop chronologies/ summaries
o Chart reviews
o Locate experts
o Ongoing assistance with medical questions and case preparation
o Observer at IME’s to uphold client’s rights

Most solo's and small firm use the treating physician to provide this work.

Is there a better way?

How does a solo attorney effectively fight the Insurance Giants? Part 1

So you took on a great personal injury case; significant damages and insurance bad faith. Do you realize all the resources the Insurance Company will bring against you...and for most solos I really mean just you! Along with a hugh support staff, many Insurance Companies have legal nurse consultants in house.

Here is a job description recently posted for Travelers Insurance:
Our Nurse Consultant will:

• Collaborate with Claims Representatives and Defense Council on claims issues
• Organize, review, and analyze medical records to assess if treatment meets standards of care and to identify and assess causation issues with correlation of diagnoses
• Prepare chronological reports with case analysis and recommendations
• Identify files for expert opinion
• Provide medical research on related medical issues
• Assist with identifying and obtaining expert witnesses and medical reviewers
• Prepare questions for depositions, peer review, expert witnesses, and IMEs
• Prepare files for mediations, trials, peer review, IMEs, etc as directed
• Attend depositions, mediations, and trials as directed by management
• Present medical training and education to claims staff
• Review and analyze expert witness reports and depositions
• Review and audit medical billing

How do you compete?

Inspecting Nursing Homes

For nursing homes to be a part of Medicare and Medicaid, Congress has certain requirements nursing homes must meet. The state governments are working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to perform health and fire safety inspections and investigate complaints of nursing homes.
Certified nursing homes must meet 180 regulatory standards to protect nursing home residents. These standards include medication, food preparation, abuse, etc.. The team is made up of trained inspectors, including 1 RN. These inspections take place at least once a year – more frequently for poor performance. The inspections make sure the nursing homes are performing at “minimum” standards. The quality of nursing homes can change (for better or worse) in a short amount of time. These changes occur when a nursing home’s administrator/ownership changes or when the home’s finances suddenly change.
Bottom Line: A passing grade still leaves room for concern.

The value of using a legal nurse consultant to review your malpractice and negligence cases

Do you believe it is best to have physicians screen your cases? Physicians review a case based on the performance of the MD. What about the performance of the Hospital? Nurses have firsthand knowledge of the impact hospital policies have on patient safety. In a study titled "The Economic Value of Professional Nursing" (Medical Care, Jan 2009) the authors looked at RN hours per patient day in relation to nursing sensitive patient outcomes. There was a strong correlation between increasing RN hours and decreasing rates of urinary tract infection, pressure ulcers and falls; moderate correlation between hours and adverse drug events and post surgical infections. These patient outcomes are all part of the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals. If a hospital is staffing short, they are not complying with the Joint Commission's Patient Safety Guidelines.

Would an MD include this in their analysis?

Using Word 2007

Many times when completing reports or chronologies I have had to scroll back and forth between 2 areas. I recently came across this from Tom at http://www.inter-alia.net:

Word tip:

In 2007: while you're in the document, click the small horizontal line just above the ruler toggle -- it's just above the scroll bar in the upper right corner of your document. When you click the line, you'll see a line appear across the screen; pull it about halfway down your document screen. This gives you two different views of the same document -- you can independently scroll above and below, to see different areas of the document on the same screen. Now you can edit your document without too much back and forth.

This will save all of us time...and therefore money!

Real cost savings for your personal injury cases!

Have you ever considered all the expenses of a personal injury case? Just look at what 5 hours can cost you while investigating the merits of the case using the treating physician. Most physicians do not like working with attorneys on these cases and so are difficult to contact. Many times the attorney does extensive medical research in preparation for meeting with the MD, and will also loose time playing phone tag.
Consider these two scenarios:
1)
· Attorney spends 5 hours contacting MD, researching injury, organizing medical records
o $250/hr x 5 hrs = $1250
· MD charges 5 hours to screen medical records, typically reading only physician records
o $500/hr x 5 hrs = $2500
· Total cost to learn merit of the case
o $3750
2)
· Attorney contacts Schaab Consulting after initial client call, arranges for screening, organizing of records, and a brief report including research.
o $250/hr x 30min = $125
· Schaab Consulting provides above services in 5 hours, including review of all records provided and recommendation to obtain further records
o $100/hr x 5 hrs = $500
· Total costs to learn merits of the case
o $625