Long Term Care & Senior Living Blog

Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard’s Long Term Care Team is tracking certain bills passing through the Missouri legislature. One of those bills that could greatly impact our clients is HB 2107 outlined below.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA reported a stolen employee laptop containing patient protected health information as well as social security numbers and other personal information of at least 500 patients. While the hospital has encryption policies, this laptop lacked encryption after a recent operating system upgrade. The hospital will mail letters this week to potentially affected patients and has notified all relevant regulatory agencies, but the situation underlines the importance of adequately protected patient information.

As reported by Missouri Lawyers Weekly, “a parade of lab-coated doctors” appeared before the Missouri State Senate and House of Representatives in early February 2013 to argue that the recent Missouri Supreme Court decision in Watts v. Cox Medical Center will reverse years of declining malpractice insurance rates. In Watts, the Court held in a 4-3 decision that the statutory cap of $350,000 on noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering is unconstitutional because it violates the plaintiff’s right to a trial by jury. The doctors argued that unlimited noneconomic damages will harm the availability and affordability of health care in Missouri and that restoring the cap will help to control costs and keep doctors in Missouri.