Latest Medical Professional Liability Headlines
All the headlines from our Medical Professional Liability Topic Page, ordered by recency.
COVID-19 Quarantined Doctors Turn to Telemedicine to Keep Seeing Patients
Mar 27 2020 // Marie-Pascale Schuller started feeling sick last week. The 57-year-old doctor specializes in respiratory illnesses, and she had a strong suspicion as to what her fever, cough and aches meant. She wanted to keep seeing...
Home Health Providers at ‘Breaking Point’ as Coronavirus Ups Demand, Saps Supplies
Mar 27 2020 // Home healthcare providers, the lifelines to 12 million vulnerable Americans, are scrambling to decide how to serve patients who show symptoms of coronavirus — and how to ensure that the providers themselves neither...
Willis Re Appoints Melanson as SVP, Health Practice Leader in Massachusetts
Mar 26 2020 // Willis Re, the reinsurance business of Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking and solutions company, has appointed Dan Melanson as senior vice president and Health Practice leader. He is based in Boston, Mass. In...
Louisiana Expands Access to Telemedicine, Federal Aid for Small Businesses
Mar 24 2020 // Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has issued Emergency Rule 37, which aims to expand access to telehealth services during the COVID-19 health emergency. The Louisiana Department of Insurance summarized the...
The Hilb Group Acquires Ohio’s Healthcare Liability Consultants Agency
Mar 24 2020 // The Hilb Group LLC (THG) has acquired Healthcare Liability Consultants Agency Inc., and hired owner and medical malpractice insurance specialist, Julie Paton, as a producer. Paton is based in Cleveland, Ohio. The...
Some Telemedicine Regulations Waived in Texas in Effort to Expand Access
Mar 18 2020 // The Texas Department of Insurance has issued an emergency rule aimed at helping doctors across the state to continue treating patients during the crisis created by COVID-19, the disease stemming from the new...
Workers at High Risk for Coronavirus Exposure and How to Protect Them
Mar 16 2020 // According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is responsible for workplace safety regulations, certain workers are at higher risk than others for exposure to the coronavirus and the disease...
Washington Providing Workers’ Comp to Quarantined Health Providers
Mar 13 2020 // The state of Washington has made the decision to provide workers’ compensation benefits to healthcare workers and first responders who are quarantined after being exposed to COVID-19 while on the job. Gov. Jay Inslee...
Coronavirus Drives Patients to Online Doctors, Spurring Telemedicine Sector
Mar 13 2020 // The new coronavirus that’s forcing lockdowns and roiling economies is spurring a silent revolution in the field of telemedicine. As COVID-19 spreads across Europe, leaving new patients in its wake, the fear of...
Workers on Coronavirus Front Lines Fear Protections Are Inadequate
Mar 9 2020 // As coronavirus cases exploded across the world, federal medical workers tasked with screening incoming passengers at U.S. airports grew alarmed: Many were working without the most effective masks to protect them from...
Bill to Make Healthcare Facilities Safer Places to Work Passes Oklahoma Senate
Mar 5 2020 // The Oklahoma Senate has passed legislation that strengthens laws related to workplace safety in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Senate Bill 1290, the Medical Care Provider Protection Act, by Sen. Darrell Weaver,...
New York Insurers Required to Waive Cost-Sharing for Coronavirus Testing
Mar 3 2020 // The New York State Department of Financial Services is requiring New York health insurers to waive cost sharing associated with testing for novel coronavirus, including emergency room, urgent care and office visits. New...
ProAssurance Looks to Acquire NORCAL in $450M Deal
Feb 21 2020 // Healthcare liability insurer ProAssurance Corp. has agreed to acquire medical professional liability insurer NORCAL Mutual Insurance Co. following NORCAL’s demutualization in a $450 million transaction. Based on...
Arkansas Health System Sued for Age Discrimination
Feb 10 2020 // White River Health System Inc., a provider of health care services throughout North Central Arkansas, has been sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for age discrimination. In a lawsuit filed on...
Coronavirus Update: Deaths Surpass 900; World Health Experts Head to Beijing
Feb 9 2020 // BEIJING, Feb 10 — An advance team of international experts led by the World Health Organization (WHO) has left for Beijing to help investigate China’s coronavirus epidemic, which authorities said on Monday had...
Hospital’s Ransomware Attack Exposes New Risk for Muni-Bond Issuers
Feb 6 2020 // Hackers have finally done what bond issuers may have feared most from cyber criminals. A ransomware attack on Pleasant Valley Hospital in West Virginia was partly responsible for the hospital’s breach of its covenant...
Michigan Health System: Ex-Worker Stole Patient Data and Shared It
Jan 28 2020 // A southeastern Michigan hospital system said that a now-fired employee accessed and shared what was supposed to be protected personal and health information of more than 1,000 patients with someone affiliated with a...
China’s Mysterious Respiratory Virus Spreads to Health Workers, Different Countries
Jan 21 2020 // China’s mysterious respiratory virus has caused six deaths and infected a number of medical workers, a sign the outbreak has entered a new phase with the illness spreading from person to person. Health-care workers...
Oklahoma Legislature to Again Take Up Issue of Surprise Medical Billing
Jan 15 2020 // How to prevent surprise medical billing from out-of-network health care providers will be on the docket for Oklahoma lawmakers during this year’s legislative session. The issue was taken up during the 2019 session...
Judge Won’t Make Health System Fund Defense of Accused Ohio Doctor
Jan 10 2020 // A federal judge declined for now to compel a Michigan-based health system to advance legal costs for a doctor’s defense against murder charges in the deaths of 25 Ohio hospital patients. U.S. District Judge George...