Oregon's Providence Hospital Caves in Billing Practices Class Action Suit
This story hits close to home, from Mr. HIStalk:
Idiotic hospital lawsuit settlement of the week: Oregon's Providence
Hospital caves
in
to a billing practices class action suit from The
Scruggs Law Firm,
whose own press release portrays them as Mother Teresa-like ministers to the
poor instead of sleazebag backwater ambulance chasers who have previously and
successfully gone after tobacco ($250 billion settlement, making Trent
Lott's brother-in-law Dickie Scruggs a billionaire) and asbestos (he's suing
insurance companies now over Hurricane Katrina as his latest hobby). From a previous interview: “Q. You want people to believe, people who are looking at you as a personal
injury lawyer, a pirate in the courtrooms of America, that you really just care
about the public health? The money didn't matter? Scruggs: The money mattered. It didn't matter as much as the public
health. It is not often in life that you have a chance to make a mark on
humanity. And we all got caught up in the opportunity that this presented to
us.” I'm … tearing up, mostly because I'm physically ill that
our system rewards this kind of behavior instead of outlawing it. Dickie's got
his gun in the back of 70 more hospital systems, so the fun is just beginning.
Hospital caves
in
to a billing practices class action suit from The
Scruggs Law Firm,
whose own press release portrays them as Mother Teresa-like ministers to the
poor instead of sleazebag backwater ambulance chasers who have previously and
successfully gone after tobacco ($250 billion settlement, making Trent
Lott's brother-in-law Dickie Scruggs a billionaire) and asbestos (he's suing
insurance companies now over Hurricane Katrina as his latest hobby). From a previous interview: “Q. You want people to believe, people who are looking at you as a personal
injury lawyer, a pirate in the courtrooms of America, that you really just care
about the public health? The money didn't matter? Scruggs: The money mattered. It didn't matter as much as the public
health. It is not often in life that you have a chance to make a mark on
humanity. And we all got caught up in the opportunity that this presented to
us.” I'm … tearing up, mostly because I'm physically ill that
our system rewards this kind of behavior instead of outlawing it. Dickie's got
his gun in the back of 70 more hospital systems, so the fun is just beginning.
The annonymous blogger, known by many as “the
HIStalk guy,” has a lot of frequently updated info on the health care
IT world. Be sure to check him out before he figures out how to turn
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his site.
[Hat tip: HIStalk]
