January 6, 2025 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the January 2025 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in their entirety, please subscribe today.

New York Gov. Hochul Vetoes Grieving Families Act for Third Time
The 2024 session of the New York State Legislature was like déjà vu all over again, as it once again overwhelmingly passed the Grieving Families Act. For the third time, Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed the measure that would have overhauled the state’s 178-year-old wrongful death statute, having previously vetoed two earlier versions of the bill in 2023 and January 2024 …

Online Healthcare Reviews Turned Negative Following COVID
Patient reviews can be a powerful tool for the healthcare industry, providing valuable insights into the quality of care being provided by medical professionals and institutions. And a correlation between patient satisfaction and medical liability claims has long been documented. After the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, the number of positive online reviews of healthcare facilities dropped significantly and has yet to fully recover, according to a recent analysis led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, more than half of the reviews on the online platform Yelp are negative, a stark reversal of the pre-COVID trend …

Texas Attorney General Sues New York Doctor for Prescribing Abortifacients Via Telemedicine
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last month filed a lawsuit accusing a New York doctor of prescribing and providing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents in violation of state law. New York is one of 23 states with shield laws protecting people accessing and providing abortion services. Paxton’s lawsuit is the first case to test what happens when state abortion laws conflict with each other …

Pennsylvania Can Access Med Malpractice JUA Surplus Funds
The United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit last month ruled that the Pennsylvania state government can access surplus funds held by the commonwealth’s Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association (JUA). The JUA currently maintains a surplus of nearly $350 million …

Philladelphia Judge Orders New Trial in $45 Million Medical Liability Verdict
Judge Glynnis D. Hill of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas last month ordered a new trial in a medical liability lawsuit that resulted in a $45 million verdict against Temple University Hospital. Judge Hill determined there were “inconsistencies in both the jury’s liability and damages determinations” significant enough to warrant the new trial …

ATRF Publishes Annual ‘Judicial Hellholes’ Report, Medical Professional Liability Again Plays Determining Role
The American Tort Reform Foundation (ATRF) issued its 2024/2025 Judicial Hellholes report last month. The annual release documents abuse of the civil justice system in jurisdictions the pro-tort reform group says are among the most unfair and out of balance in the United States. The ATRF is a branch of the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), an umbrella organization exclusively dedicated to reforming the nation’s court system via a network of state-based liability-reform coalitions. As every year, medical professional liability issues played a compelling role in which regions/jurisdictions received mention in the Judicial Hellholes report …

Bills to Raise, Pierce MedMal Damage Cap Die in Michigan Congress
Legislation aimed at amending the Michigan Revised Judicature Act to increase — or in certain cases eliminate — the state’s limits on recoverable noneconomic damages in medical liability claims failed last month when two companion bills did not pass their respective chambers before the adjournment of the state’s 2024 legislative session. The proposed bills would have also introduced new exemptions to those increased limits …

Make America Healthy Again: An Unconventional Movement
President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House has given health business leaders and non-mainstream doctors significant clout in shaping the nascent health policies of the new administration and its federal agencies. It’s also giving newfound momentum to “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, a controversial movement that challenges prevailing perspectives on public health and chronic disease …

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