When Medical Care Turns Into Legal Care
Women who have expected to visit their obstetrician/gynecologist for care of their bodies are not feeling pressure to sign binding arbitration agreements or lose the care of a physician that they have been using for a while.
Doctors requiring that their patients sign binding arbitrations are saying that is to help lower healthcare coast by cutting back on the cost of malpractice insurance. Although there may be a video on many of the gynecologist and obstetrician groups using the binding arbitration video patients may be left with many questions.
In early April the St. Petersburg Times ran an article on how many obstetrics groups, including Tampa Bay Women’s Care, that are now requiring that their patients sign binding arbitration agreements. Tampa Bay Women’s care is a large healthcare group with several different locations throughout Tampa Bay and Orlando. Tampa Bay Women’s Care is not the only group now requiring binding arbitration agreement. The Woman’s Group in Tampa also has just recently introduced a binding arbitration agreement.
The care of patients has really turned into a business that requires more patient involvement than ever. Beyond being their own medical advocate when visiting the doctor’s office patients must now be their own legal advocate.
External Links:
Binding Mandatory Arbitration- National Association of Consumer Advocates
Information on binding arbitrations from a national organization of attorneys
Parents, 3rd grade FCAT scores are now available for viewing online. All parents should be receiving or already received the login id and password for the FCAT parent network so that they can view their child’s scores online as they become available. In the area of the 3rd grade FCAT, the state of Florida had 72% of its students with a score of 3 or higher on the FCAT. A score of 3 or higher is considered passing.