MANAGED CARE MALPRACTICE: Oxnard Woman Sues Medical Group Director
An Oxnard woman is suing "the director of a large physicians association alleging that he denied her request for a brain scan just two weeks before she suffered a paralyzing stroke." The Los Angeles Times reports that the case, filed Wednesday in Ventura County Superior Court, "could test the extent of a managed care group's liability for patient welfare." Plaintiff Joyce Wooton contends in the lawsuit that she would not have suffered a stroke if Dr. David Mescher, head of the Oxnard-based Sea View Medical Group, had not denied her doctor's request for a CAT scan. "I'd like to fix what's wrong here. I'd like it to be where if someone else comes along and needs a CAT scan, they get it," Wooton said. Mark Hiepler, Wooton's attorney, "said the case is novel in that it seeks, perhaps for the first time, to hold the head of a medical group directly responsible for a patient's care." "We believe the nameless, faceless deniers of care ... should be held to the same responsibility as the people who tried to treat her," he said. The Times reports that neither Mescher nor a spokesperson from Sea View could be reached for comment yesterday (Alvarez, 7/17). Click here to read past California Healthline coverage of the HMO liability issue.
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