6 Medical-Related Issues Worth Pursuing

By Tork Media

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6 Medical-Related Issues Worth Pursuing

The American healthcare system can be complex and frustrating. Unfortunately, this causes some people to experience adverse outcomes, like billing discrepancies and medical errors. To protect your health and legal interests, it’s important to understand your rights and recognize situations that warrant further action on your part.

The following situations are common medical-related issues that often justify pursuing formal complaints, appeals, and sometimes lawsuits.

1. Medical malpractice

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider violates the standards of care they’re legally required to follow. For example, surgical errors are an obvious form of medical malpractice, but failure to diagnose a serious illness despite observable symptoms can also be considered medical malpractice.

Other examples include failure to monitor a patient for complications, like infection, prescribing the wrong medication or dose, and injuries caused by a nurse who failed to properly assist or monitor a patient.

If you believe you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice, contact an attorney right away to see if you have a case. You shouldn’t have to suffer financially for a mistake made by a healthcare provider you trusted.

2. Billing problems

Hospital bills are notorious for containing duplicate charges, incorrect dates, phantom procedures, and miscellaneous charges for supplies and services you never received. It’s not always clear whether or not this is intentional, but most people never notice because they don’t look at the itemized bill.

If you’ve been trying to resolve an inaccurate bill, but the facility has been unresponsive to your attempts to resolve the errors, consider getting a consultation with an attorney. You can also hire a company that specializes in medical billing negotiation. Get some consultations to find out how you should proceed.

3. Denied insurance claims

Insurance companies love to deny perfectly valid claims in order to preserve their profits. After all, they are for-profit corporations and their profits increase the less they pay out.

If you’ve been paying your premiums for a specific policy that covers whatever you were denied for, it’s worth pursuing through an appeal. However, you’ll probably need to bring in a professional to help. Insurance companies often dodge phone calls and won’t budge if you try to negotiate on your own. However, when you bring in someone who knows their game, they’re more likely to play fair.

It’s possible that your claim was denied fairly for some reason, so be prepared for that possibility, but don’t hesitate to pursue the issue until you know for certain you can’t get what you want.

4. Informed consent violations

Some procedures require informed consent, but if you were never properly told about the risks, benefits, and alternatives, you didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision about your care. If this situation applies to you, it’s worth pursuing for yourself and to prevent it from happening to other people.

5. Patient rights violations

Confidentiality is taken very seriously in the medical world, and there are legal protections in place (HIPAA) that will result in consequences for any violations. Your medical information is supposed to be protected at all times, and isn’t allowed to be shared with third parties without your consent. Unfortunately, private health information (PHI) violations occur frequently, and if that’s happened to you, it’s worth pursuing.

Other ways patient rights can be violated include discrimination based on protected classes, like age, race, gender, or disability, and denying you access to your medical records or creating delays that impact your ability to seek second opinions or additional care.

6. Administrative errors

Everyone makes mistakes, but people working in the medical industry need to be held to a higher standard, considering patient health is at stake. If you experienced appointment scheduling errors that delayed your treatment or diagnostic procedures, your doctor didn’t fully understand your symptoms before providing treatment, or a facility lost your documentation, you should file a formal complaint.

These issues may have been a one-time mistake, but they’re indicative of a much larger, systemic problem with how a facility operates.

Put your wellbeing first

When you’ve experienced a medical issue, standing up for your rights is the only way to get resolution. Whether you file a formal complaint, appeal a denial, negotiate with billing, or hire a lawyer, you’re doing the right thing.

Where medical malpractice is concerned, a lawsuit is your only chance to get compensation. If you don’t pursue a lawsuit, you’ll foot the bill for someone else’s negligence. If you’ve been seriously wronged, contact an attorney and they’ll help you get the resolution you deserve.