2006-Winter-Newslett
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theWATCHER www.georgiawatch.org The newsletter of the state’s leading consumer watchdog Vol. IV, Winter 2006 NEW FEDERAL BILL PLACES 36 PERCENT CAP ON LOANS THE NEWS OFFERED TO MILITARY IS IN (AND IT BUT DOES IT GO FAR ENOUGH? ISN’T GOOD) REPORTS SHED LIGHT BY COLEY WARD dept. He was not the first soldier to fall ON MEDICATION ERRORS victim to a predatory lender, but with AND INFECTION RATES IN In 2004, Private Adam Jordan, 24, who any luck, he will be one of the last. In GEORGIA HOSPITALS is married with three small children, September, the U.S. Congress passed borrowed nearly $2,500 from a car a bill that will cap annual interest on all BY COLEY WARD title loan shop in Hinesville, near Fort commercial loans offered to members Stewart military base, using the title to In the last year several studies of the military and their families at 36 his 1998 Chevy Cavalier as collateral. have documented the dangers percent, beginning in October 2007. that are inherent every time you Shortly after receiving the loan he was The Talent-Nelson Amendment, are admitted to the hospital. deployed to Iraq, where he served for sponsored by Sens. Jim Talent and Bill These studies have confirmed 11 months. While he was overseas he Nelson, will protect our troops from what many consumer experts made monthly payments to the lender triple-digit interest rates, both here in already suspected: spend time in of $250 each, for a total of $2,695. Georgia and in other states. Currently, a Georgia hospital and you are at Private Jordan figured he was well on Georgia law allows car title lenders to risk for infection, doctor error and his way to paying back his loan. But he charge up to 300 percent annual interest. medication error. was wrong. They can repossess a borrower’s car THE DANGERS From each of the 11 payments Private if a payment is an hour late – with no Jordan made, only 46 cents went notification to the customer – and they In July, the Institute of Medicine towards the principal on his loan. By can sell that car after 30 days and keep (IOM) found that more than 1.5 the time he had finished his tour of any excess funds. For example, even million Americans are injured duty and returned home, he had paid if a car is sold for $15,000 to cover a every year by drug errors in the lender nearly $2,700, but had paid loan of only $1,000, the lender keeps hospitals, nursing homes and barely $5 of the $2,500 principal. At the the extra $14,000. doctors’ offices, a count that rate he was going, it was impossible for doesn’t even estimate patients’ The Talent-Nelson Amendment came him to repay the loan in his lifetime. own medication mix-ups. On in response to a July Department of average, a hospitalized patient is Private Jordan learned the hard way Defense (DOD) report that accused subject to at least one medication what many U.S. servicemen and predatory lenders of targeting service error per day. women have learned: car title loans are members and their families by an easy way to get stuck in a cycle of clustering around military bases and Drug errors aren’t the only cause CONTINUES ON PAGE 4 for concern for hospital patients. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in 20 patients, or about 2 million a year, contracts an infection in the hospital, and about 90,000 die as a result. Hospital acquired-infections increase the length of hospital stays up to 30 extra days, adding to the cost of health care and causing substantial, unnecessary pain and illness. CONTINUES ON PAGE 2 1 ACTIVIST PROFILE: Navigator/Bombardier, is severely Doctors tell Don that nothing can be handicapped, living in constant pain done. He tried to hold the surgeon D O N C O F F E E and frustration. Even things like eating accountable in court, but the statute of BY MAGGIE WHITE and breathing are difficult. limitations on his case expired while he was in bed recovering. A photograph on Don Coffee’s “I have lost 60 pounds,” Don says. “I refrigerator shows him smiling have vocal chord paralysis and my “I was unconscious half the time,” Don behind the wheel of his boat on Lake toes, fingers and gums are numb. I says. “I was trying to stay alive.” Lanier. In the photo he is tan, lean, and can’t distinguish flavors. All my solid Coffee has reached out to several full of youth. food must be shredded with a food attorneys, the surgeon, the hospital, processor to keep me from choking.” The photo was taken in 1999. Back other doctors, the state medical board, then, even at 79 years old, Don still That’s not all. Don also has chronic his state senator and representative, refused to act his age. He played golf diarrhea. He has to wear a support belt the lieutenant governor and the and tennis, walked 15 miles a week, 24 hours a day. And, as if to add insult governor, to no avail. Still, Don Coffee swam laps in the lake behind his to injury, he has a worse hernia than isn’t giving up. house, boated, and traveled. Today, before his surgery. His story is evidence that for patients the Don Coffee in the photo seems like His medical problems have also who have suffered because of a distant memory. become a financial burden. After three someone else’s negligence, justice In May of 2000, Don saw his doctor operations, Don required a full-time and accountability have always been about a small polyp at the end of his caregiver for months after leaving the hard to come by, even before Georgia colon. He was scheduled for outpatient hospital. Since his surgery, he has spent passed a devastating law in 2005 that surgery at the hospital and was sent $100,000 that he intended to give his limits the legal rights of victims of home the same day. 21 grandchildren – money he earned medical errors. flying combat over Germany, Korea But soon after he returned home, Don and in service during the Vietnam War. began to have excruciating abdominal pain and could not have a bowel movement. For several days, doctors dismissed his complaints. Finally, Don went to the emergency room where doctors discovered an infection that had spread throughout his body. During his surgery, the doctor had nicked his colon, allowing bacteria and feces to flow into his body. Then, while in intensive care, a breathing tube was left in his throat for too long, damaging his vocal cords. Today, the damage to Don’s body is devastating. The retired colonel, who served 25 years with the Air Force and has 15 medals for his service as a Lead Navigator, Bombardier, and Radar THE NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Yet, despite this high rate of The Public Citizen report says 36.2% From medical errors and unnecessary prescription error, doctors are seldom of physicians who were involved in treatments to misused drugs and held accountable – even when they prescription violations and/or use, bureaucratic waste, new research purposely commit prescription fraud. possession or distribution of controlled suggests such problems each year According to a report issued in August substances faced only “wrist-slap” cost private employers between by Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.- punishments, such as fines, reprimands $1,700 and $2,000 per insured worker. based watchdog group, doctors who and mandatory educational programs. Premiums are up 16 percent this year commit crimes often escape harsh for most large employers, while smaller THE COSTS professional punishment by state companies are seeing even larger cost and federal agencies. Professional The Chicago-based Midwest Business increases, analysts say. disciplinary boards are particularly Group on Health claims that low- Drug errors are not just dangerous, but light on doctors who have been quality health care is costing nearly expensive. A preventable drug error can involved in crimes related to drugs, $400 billion a year, or about 30 percent add more than $5,800 to the hospital including prescribing violations and of the total $1.3 trillion spent annually bill of a single patient. Assuming that substance abuse. on medical expenditures in the U.S. 2 CONTINUES ON PAGE 6 The Court of Appeals’ ruling said the confidentiality waiver conflicts with the TORT REFORM federal Health Insurance Portability GOES UNDER THE KNIFE and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which guarantees the confidentiality of patient BY ALLISON WALL lawsuits to dictate the county where information. The ruling reaffirms that their case is heard. Last year, the Georgia General Assembly access to patients’ information must delivered a present to Big Insurance, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears in her be balanced with privacy protections. the hospital and medical lobbies, opinion wrote that the state Constitution Finally, the provision that restricts the and corporate giants Georgia Pacific, grants only trial judges, not defendants, use of expert witnesses has also come Home Depot, Georgia Power and the authority to transfer cases from under fire. It says an expert in medical Coca-Cola. It was called Senate Bill one county to another. For that reason, malpractice lawsuit must practice 3, and it severely changed the state’s the venue provision is unconstitutional, the same specialty that he or she is justice system. she said. testifying about? Senate Bill 3 limits what a jury can Another provision, “offer of Defendants have attempted to use that compensate any victim injured as settlement,” was first rejected in part of the law to say that an orthopedic the result of medical malpractice 2005 in a Gwinnett County court.