Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Ruling: Whistleblowers Cannot File False Claims Lawsuits

In Florida, a US District Court recently ruled that whistleblowers cannot file False Claims Act lawsuits on behalf of the federal government—known as qui tam provisions—because it’s unconstitutional. Current or former employees often file False Claims Act suits when they suspect their employer is committing fraud or filing inaccurate Medicare and Medicaid claims. In 2023, the courts assessed in more than $2.3 billion in lawsuits from private whistleblowers in all industries, according to Reuters. The …

Supervising Doctors May be Held Liable in Malpractice Suits

Urgent Message: A supervising physician can be named in a lawsuit for malpractice against a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, however, there are steps supervising physicians can take to protect themselves against such actions. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc In urgent care settings, physicians are often responsible for supervising and overseeing a team of other healthcare employees, including nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants (PAs), and medical assistants (MAs). If any member of this team is …

Cautionary Insights into Lawsuits Against Physicians

Urgent care providers were not named among those most likely to be sued in Medscape’s recent Malpractice Report 2017, but a look at the research is likely to offer some insights that could help them lower their risk for landing in court. “Failure to diagnose/delayed diagnosis” was the reason for 31% of the lawsuits against physicians in the survey—the most prevalent among all causes mentioned. “Complications from treatment/surgery” was the second-most common answer (27%). Procedural …

The Game Part 3

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Lawyer: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning? Lawyer: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? Witness: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. Lawyer: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? Witness: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. Lawyer: And Mr. Johnson was dead at the …