Spine Case Goes to New Jersey Supremes

If you fail to disclose that you don’t have medical malpractice insurance before you perform surgery on a patient and something goes wrong, is that fraud?

According to Law360, a New Jersey couple named James and Sheila Jarrell were awarded less than $938, 000 by a jury after the jury found their spine surgeon had deviated from accepted standards. The couple appealed the award up to the state’s Supreme Court, who agreed on November 22, 2013 to consider the case. The couple is claiming that the physician’s failure to disclose his lack of medical malpractice insurance constitutes fraud by the surgeon and the hospital where the surgery took place.

We have heard this story about deviating from accepted standards in New Jersey before.

Regular OTW readers will recognize the name of Richard Kaul, M.D. Kaul is currently waiting to hear from a New Jersey administrative judge on whether or not the judge will recommend to the State Medical Practice Board that Kaul’s medical license be revoked for deviating from accepted standards and guidelines and being a danger to the public. The state’s Attorney General and star witness Greg Przybylski, M.D., say Kaul, (and interventional physicians like him) lack the qualifications and training to perform certain spine surgery procedures, such as a lumbar fusion.

Kaul and interventionalists continue to frame Kaul’s case as a turf war over who is going to make money from performing certain procedures. Board certified orthopedic spine surgeons say the interventionalist are not trained adequately in surgery to be able to deal with problems that could arise during an endoscopic procedure and an open approach is required.

Dr. Kaul’s tribulations or transgressions, depending where you stand, continue to provide fodder for important legal and clinical questions about spine surgery and patient protection. It may not be the last time the New Jersey Supremes see Dr. Kaul.