Medical Malpractice Expert

You read it everywhere–doctors are being forced out of Illinois by medical malpractice attorneys in Chicago.  But what about the people whose lives are devastated by a medical errors, or whose loved ones are killed by a bad doctor or a mistake at a hospital that was 100% preventable?

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There’s some little-noticed good news for patients in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 that became law with Congress’s override of President Bush’s veto on Tuesday: Medicare …

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Social Security Fraud refers to the act of dishonestly claiming of benefits. Due to the increasing number of fraudulent claims, the US government enacted a law that will protect individuals from these illicit conducts.

What constitutes Fraud under the Social Security Act?

The Social Security Act provides an outline for actions that are considered fraudulent. Some of those acts are the following:

• Knowingly and willfully makes or causes to be made any false statement or representation of material facts in the application for benefits under this title;

• Knowingly and willfully makes or causes to be made any false statement or representation of a material fact for use in determining any rights to the benefits;

• Having knowledge of any event affecting

o His  or her right to the benefit

o The initial or continued right to the benefit of other individual in whose behalf he or she has applied for or is receiving benefit

o Having made an application to receive any of such benefits for the use and benefit of other and having receive it, knowingly and willfully converts the benefits for the use other than for what is intended

Information needed in filing Social Security Fraud

When planning to file a Fraud complaint, you need the following data:

• Name

• Address

• Social security number of the person you are reporting.

• Description of potential fraud incident

In cases where the Social Security number is not known, you need to secure his or her date of birth, age and the name of the parents. However, if you are reporting a concealed activity you need the name of the employer and its address and phone number.

How to report Social Security Fraud incident

The Social Security Administration takes seriously any report regarding Social Security Fraud. The Office of the Inspector General is the one who investigates incidents of Social Security Fraud. If you have any knowledge regarding these incidents, you can report it immediately by:

• Calling the Social Security Office hotline number

• Use the on line fraud reporting form

• Write to Social Security Office.

Yet, if you have been the actual victim of a fraudulent act, seeking legal assistance from a competent Social Security Fraud attorney is advisable. An attorney with sufficient in handing these cases can help you prosecute the law violators.

What is the Office of the Inspector General?

The Office of the Inspector General is the one directly responsible for meeting the statutory mission promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the administration of Social Security programs. It is also responsible for preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement in such programs and operations.

OIG also searches and reports systematic weaknesses in SSA programs and operations and make recommendations for improvements and corrective actions.

Penalties for the violation of the Act

Any person found guilty for Social Security Fraud shall be:

• Fined under the United States Code

• Imprisoned for not more than five years or both

The federal court in sentencing the defendant may in addition to any other penalty order restitution.

When can there be restitution?

The court orders restitution in any of the following instances:

• The Commissioner of Social Security order payment that should not have  been made

• An individual suffers financial loss due to defendant’s violation of this Act.

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Medical negligence is where doctors or any other professional in the medical profession have been found in breach of a duty of care. For example if a doctor failed to diagnose a medical condition or diagnosed the wrong condition this would be classed as medical negligence.

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Tobacco companies manipulate the amount of menthol in cigarettes to make those first few puffs more palatable to young smokers, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that could fuel support for more …

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If you believe all they hype by “tort-reform” zealots, every injured victim is a ‘money-hungry, selfish and health-care destroying monster.”

Contrary to all the hype, practically every single injured medical malpractice victim who walks in my door is just the opposite. Here’s what I mean:

The people who come to me never started off their medical treatment by looking for a lawsuit. Instead, they went to a doctor or hospital to get better; to get treatment they needed; or to get checked to make sure they did not have any dangerous medical condition. They did not go to the doctor’s office hoping the doctor would do something wrong, and cause them serious permanent harm. They didn’t go to the doctor’s office hoping the doctor would screw up and they would ‘rake in the cash’! Nobody is that foolish. In fact, almost every person who comes to me for advice is almost apologetic that they’re coming in searching for answers. Many potential clients tell me “We’re not looking for money…we just want justice.” “We want to make sure this never happens again…”

It is days, weeks and months later do these potential clients wonder how they will survive financially as a result of their diminished earning capacity and their lost time from work. Who will pay for their health insurance premiums if they cannot work? Who will buy the groceries, pay the mortgage, the medical bills? How will they pay for their children’s school tuition and camp if they cannot return to work? Those thoughts usually come after the healing process, assuming there is one.

There are many “reformists” who argue that there should be an artificial and arbitrary limit to an injured victims’ pain and suffering compensation. Does that mean that even when an injured victim has unrelenting pain that never goes away and limits their daily activities, that the most compensation they can receive is an arbitrary number created by someone who has never had that type of pain? Is that fair?

Does a patient seeking a doctor’s help truly seek to destroy the health-care system and how insurance companies reimburse doctors? The patient just wants to get better. They want treatment that will let them continue on with their lives unobstructed and free from limitation. Does a patient want a doctor to commit malpractice so his or her life can be destroyed and ruin his job and his family life just to bring a lawsuit? Such thinking is incomprehensible.

On the other hand, I am sure there are many good physicians who wake up each morning and say to themselves “I’m going to do the best I can today.” I don’t expect there are any physicians who wake up and say “Let’s see how many patients I can screw up today so they can sue me for medical malpractice.”

However, malpractice occurs when a physician is careless and departs from good and accepted medical care in the State of New York; when there is a lack of communication; where someone drops the ball and misinterprets a radiology report or a pathology report leading to incorrect or improper treatment. A failure to diagnose is always significant, especially if the failure leads to the patient needing additional treatment that otherwise he would not have needed if the condition had been timely and properly diagnosed.

Surgery and anesthesia errors are always signficiant. Many of those mistakes lead to the patient needing additional corrective surgery, or possibly lead to an untimely and wrongful death. Having practiced personal injury law and medical malpractice law for almost twenty years now in the greater New York metropolitan area, I recognize that medical mistakes and errors happens with doctors that are board certified as well as doctors that are not board certified. There are excellent doctors who are well qualified, yet in some cases, those doctors may be careless and that carelessness may have caused significant harm to the patient.

Getting back to the original premise of this article: Are injured medical malpractice victims ‘money-grubbing, selfish, health-care destroying’ people? Or are they just stuck in the unfortunate position of having been the recipient of improper medical care that has now turned their life upside-down? You decide.

I hope that all of your medical care goes well and you do not need the services of an experienced medical malpractice lawyer practicing law here in the State of New York.

Gerry Oginski is an experienced medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney practicing law in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, New York, Staten Island, Nassau & Suffolk. He has tirelessly represented injured victims in all types of medical malpractice, wrongful death and injury cases since 1988. As a solo practitioner he is able to devote 100% of his time to each individual client. A client is never a file number in his office. Take a look at Gerry’s website http://www.oginski-law.com and read his free special reports on malpractice and accident law. Read actual testimony of real doctors in medical malpractice cases. Learn answers to your legal questions. We have over 200 FAQs to the most interesting legal questions. Read about his success stories. Read the latest injury and malpractice news. I guarantee there’s something for you. For more information, call him personally at 516-487-8207. Also, go over to http://medicalmalpracticetutorial.blogspot.com for Gerry’s free instructional videos on New York Medical Malpractice & accident law. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gerry_Oginski

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Nevada Senator Harry Reid today will join with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to sign the Medicare doctors’ fix bill passed with a veto-proof majority yesterday by the Senate, which will now go to President Bush …

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Duties and Capabilities

Unlike what other people who are pursuing their disability claims think, Social Security Disability attorneys do have their advantageous functions in having a successful case.

First, SSD attorneys or representatives have the capability to determine whether an applicant is eligible for disability benefit programs of the Social Security Administration or not. Hence, they also make sure that a disabled person has applied for all the programs they are qualified. With these, the SSA offices have no reasons for losing their files and not processing their applications on time.

An advocate can also determine if a claimant are qualified to reopen his previous petitions. In some instances, a reopened old application can qualify a disabled person for back benefits, thereby increasing his collections.

Furthermore, these experienced representatives can evaluate cases and give their advices on how to formulate a strategy to gain successful results. These plans may include the following:

• Preparing the needed documents such as the client’s birth certificate and Social Security Number

• Gathering the applicant’s medical records from hospitals, clinics and private doctors who provide him treatment and medication

• Bring the applicant to other expert doctors to further enhance the credibility of the medical findings

• Teach the applicant on how to respond to the Social Security Adjuster’s questions

• Further explain to the disabled applicant about the Social Security procedures to prevent mistakes and misjudgments

More importantly, the disabled person may have more time for his medical treatment without much worry on the status of his disability benefits application.

Fees Payment under Contingency Basis

Another advantage in getting the aid of SSD attorneys in filing disability claims is that most of them work on a contingent basis. This means, a Social Security Disability benefits applicant will only has to pay his attorney’s fees if he has able to win the case and already get his money from the SSA.

Generally, Social Security representatives charge their clients around 25% to 40% of the total collected money or depending on the amount of the money collected. Compared to how much the applicant may acquire in winning a case, such charges are just fair enough considering the time and efforts an attorney may lose if they failed to have a case approval.

With this type of payment plan, the disabled clients should not have to worry on where to get money to pay his attorney especially if he loss his case.

How to Find Dependable SSD Attorneys

In searching for the right attorney to handle a disability claim, one must take a lot of caution. Not all attorneys have sufficient knowledge about Social Security laws and procedures. Some of them have yet to experience handling these particular types of cases.

Thus, it is vital to look at the attorney’s background before appointing him to represent claim cases. Examine closely his record of winnings and probably ask if he also work on a contingency basis. In so doing these will make sure that a disabled applicant will hire the best representative for his Social Security Disability claim.

Our skilled disability lawyers can help you pursue your social security claims and other benefits. To avail of our free case analysis, you can log on to our website.

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Although you may know that there are often babies born with birth defects, you might not be that knowledgeable about how these birth defects came about. Although many are hereditary or caused by some other natural reason, there are other birth defects caused through injury at time of the birth. The injury can happen whilst the baby is still in the womb or even during the delivery. These injuries can be minor or fatal. If the baby sustains brain injury then it will prove to be fatal as the whole life of the baby will be affected. Due to the injury a bay may develop cerebral palsy or become mentally retarded. This type of major birth injury not only affects the child but also affects the family members as they have to bear the burden of the child throughout their life. Sometimes the injury may be caused due to the negligence of the hospital staff. In this kind of situation there is a provision in law where the parents can sue the hospital for compensation.

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