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B is for Bastards and Other Hot News

By Joe Consumer

Lots of interesting non-election stuff in the news, too!  Here?s a little review:

Reuters reports, ?A new survey of primary care practices in North Carolina shows nearly one in six patients believed their physician had made a wrong diagnosis or a treatment error, and about one in seven said they had changed doctor as a result.? [E]ight percent said they had experienced ?a lot? or ?severe? harm from the perceived mistake in care."

Meanwhile, a new study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that ?telling physicians they shouldn't accept gifts from drug companies is all well and good.  But convincing them that doing so is wrong is another matter... [P]hysicians rationalize such gifts as payback for all the sacrifices they made to get their education -- although they may not realize they're doing it.  The attitude, the researchers said, is one of ?because I'm worth it.?? 

Here?s another thing some docs may think they?re entitled to do: branding body parts. Smoking Gun reports, ?After performing a hysterectomy last year, a California gynecologist used a cauterizing tool to brand his patient?s name on her removed uterus, an unorthodox move that the doctor calls a ?friendly gesture,? but which the woman terms ?despicable conduct? in a medical negligence lawsuit.?

As for one of the medical establishment?s best ?tort reform? allies, the tobacco industry, they?re having a good day thanks to Supreme Court Antonin Scalia, who granted their request to block ?a state court order requiring tobacco companies to pay $270 million for a smoking cessation program in Louisiana.?  We?ll see what happens when the full court gets its hands on this case ? a class action that the tobacco industry lost.

And now that we?re on the topic of doctors and tobacco, Texas Magistrate says that Texas' brutal, anti-patient tort reform law, which ?capped medical liability for non-economic damages at $250,000, doesn't violate victims' constitutional rights.?   Yeah, the business and medical lobbies took care of that by getting the constitution changed first. 

BP oil fund administrator Ken Feinberg has changed his tune on ruling that certain businesses are ineligible to submit claims based on ?proximity.?  That may seem like a victory for some, but not so fast. Check out Olbermann?s Worst Person?s segment last night on MSNBC, skewering BP?s and its new chief executive, Bob Dudley, over their recent courtroom shenanigans.  Read, or watch, below:

BP's court filings say the fishermen, seafood processors, hotel owner, restaurateur, oyster farmers and the like must first apply to relief from the official BP compensation fund, that they must play that game of bureaucratic red tape before they can begin to sue. Even the lawyers are saying they should wait until next March before which test cases should proceed to trial and which should not. that's moving too fast for BP and now we know why.  BP agreed to the $20 billion fund. Because it buys them time for the public to forget, for the remaining oil to dissipate, for them to potentially lose internal memos and e-mails and text messages and other evidence of their culpability, and especially time for the victims to run out of money with which to pay their lawyers. Bob Dudley of BP, never did figure out what the P really stands for. but the B is clearly for bastards, today's worst person in the world.

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Full post as published by ThePopTort on September 15, 2010 (boomark / email).