Florida Hospital Cannot Avoid Birth Injury Lawsuit, Appeals Court Rules
In 1988, Florida lawmakers introduced NICA (birth-related Neurological Injury Compensation Association) to provide a no-fault remedy for parents of children with specific injuries that they incurred at birth with an aim toward reducing the soaring cost of medical malpractice claims. However, an appeals court recently ruled that hospitals cannot force an appeal on that state funded method of compensation if the family declines to pursue it. This opens the door to potentially costly malpractice litigation for the University of Florida, its Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, and its insurance providers.
The defendants in the lawsuit presented arguments that the parents of a child injured at birth must adjudicate the injury fund claim through the State Division of Administrative Hearings (known as DOAH). The family had initially petitioned for compensation from the injury fund in 2018, but the funds manager of the neurological injury compensation association determined that the claim was not compensable and the child did not meet the criteria of mental impairment spelled out in the statute.
Both Shands and the University of Florida sought to intervene in the case and asked a DOAH judge to overturn the injury funds decision. In response, the family filed an amended petition, dropping its own claim for fund payments. The DOAH judge in 2023 agreed and denied compensation.
The medical centers then appealed to the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee. However, the court found that Shands and the University of Florida were not injured parties and had no standing to present the appeal. The ruling means that the family can file a medical malpractice lawsuit against Shands and the University of Florida.
Had the DOAH judge found that the child suffered a neurological injury, and the first DCA had upheld that decision, the parents, under the BRNI statute, would have been precluded from suing the University of Florida and Shands for medical malpractice. That would have been a huge win for the defendants. Instead of being paid by the medical malpractice lawsuit, the parents would have been paid by the BRNI fund.
None of that happened. So now, the parents get to sue the University of Florida and Shands for medical malpractice and will likely collect much more than they would have received under the BRNI statute. This also explains why the parents, after filing their claim with Nica, decided to drop it.
The 41-page opinion by the appeals court, which discussed the separation of powers in state government at length, may have little practical importance for Shands in this case. Two days after making oral arguments at the appellate court, the medical center and the University of Florida decided to drop the appeal.
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Source:
insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2024/12/12/804484.htm
