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From: Summer Projects <ConnerGriffin@eldmil.com>
To: "Duncan, Brian M." <brian.duncan@kattenlaw.com>
Subject: Bob Vila has reviews for your upcoming summer project: June 14th :..
Thread-Topic: Bob Vila has reviews for your upcoming summer project: June
 14th :..
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Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:09:49 -0500
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Bob Vila's Contractor Reviews for you
Your home renovation and Update.
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June 14th, 2013
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To see your local contractor picks please follow below:

Bob Vilas Picks for you -
http://www.eldmil.com/summer/projects/start.html


Were doing amazing things in your neighborhood.
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We will donate to the National Coalition for the Homeless on your behalf once
you see who bob has picked for your next home update.


Very popular home updates:

-Kitchen
-Bathroom
-Roof
-AC Installation
-Hard wood floors

Describe your project: http://www.eldmil.com/summer/projects/start.html


Don't wish to receive anymore communications from us, please visit the below link or write.
http://www.eldmil.com/summer/projects/index.html
11902 Silver Canyone Lane, Houston, TX 77067


What's the use of balmy weather and long summer days if you can't hang out in your yard and have some fun? But if there's nowhere good to sit and nothing fun to do at your house, don't fret. These 28 projects, culled from the TOH archives of great weekend upgrades, will enhance your yard, beautify your exterior, and give everyone in the family something exciting to do. Pick and choose the ones that are right for your home, and soon you'll have the most attractive and entertaining yard on the block.

When the sun is hot and kids are bored, there's nothing better to get them motivated than a project that comes with a built-in reward. Building this old-fashioned lemonade stand is sure to spark some creative interest, along with a bit of entrepreneurial spirit.


Californias tort wars are heating up, and Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee notes: The big question is whether plaintiffs attorneys will try again to overturn the $250,000 cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases that Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 1975.

If increased by legislatorsinstead of by voters at the ballot boxa higher cap would have to be approved by Brown. The current cap limits jury awards to $250,000 for impossible-to-quantify pain and suffering damages in medical lawsuits. It does not limit compensation for lost wages, medical costs, childcare, home care, or any other out-of-pocket expense.

It would be a huge mistake for Brown to increase, index, or eliminate the limit because it has been a reasonable constraint on juror behavior that significantly improved health care in California. Jerry Brown just needs to listen to himself from 1993 as to why the bill worked:

At the time [1975], Californias medical community was in the midst of a crisis. The cost of medical malpractice insurance policies was skyrocketing. Many physicians were forced to go bare, because they could not afford to purchase insurance, some discontinued providing certain high-risk procedures, while others threatened to quit. Insurance companies claimed that the costs associated with malpractice insurance were rising at such a rate that their only option was to raise health care professionals liability premiums or to withdraw from the market altogether. In short, the stability of the health care system in California faced a grave threat.

The limit helped keep medical liability insurance premiums affordable and doctors in the state. It spared California all the turmoil of the 1990s and 2000s experienced by other states with no limits at the time such as Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Patients in these states often had no access to care, especially in rural and low-income neighborhoods, due to doctor shortages. Patients often traveled long distances to find doctors, especially those who practiced high-risk specialties. Tragically, some patients didnt make it in time and died. After Texas adopted reasonable limits on pain and suffering damage awards in 2003, medical liability insurance premiums fell and doctors flooded back into Texas.

As any doctor will tell you, If it aint broken, dont operate. So Gov. Brown should not alter the limit he approved and that has worked well.

Meanwhile, Browns 1993 statement also discussed the problems he has with Californias medical liability law, MICRA. I will refute Browns objections in a future blog. Stay tuned.

Tags: California, Healthcare, Malpractice, Uncategorized

Doctors Should Rethink Costless Medical Ethics
By John C. Goodman    Wednesday June 12, 2013 10:37 AM PDT    2 Comments
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One of the most important differences between my book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, and the conventional literature on health policy is my belief that patients should be encouraged to choose between healthcare and other uses of money. And thats not just for small expenses. I think patients should be encouraged to make choices involving expensive procedures as well. If Im right, doctors will have to take a new approach to medicine, and in taking this approach, they may have to rethink how they view medical ethics.

The latest edition of the American College of Physicians manual on ethics created quite a stir with the following passage:

Physicians have a responsibility to practice effective and efficient healthcare and to use healthcare resources responsibly. Parsimonious care that utilizes the most efficient means to effectively diagnose a condition and treat a patient respects the need to use resources wisely and to help ensure that resources are equitably available.[1]