GREENSBORO, N.C., July 19, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Jeffrey Segal, MD, a neurosurgeon, entrepreneur and CEO of Medical Justice Services Inc., has filed a patent application for HealthCare 2.0, a system that will radically change the way insurance carriers, health systems, doctors and patients work together.
HealthCare 2.0 will address much of what is wrong with health care today. It will reduce the ordering of unnecessary tests to provide a defense for the doctor should a lawsuit later be filed - and use the savings to improve health care for all Americans.
It will reduce malpractice insurance costs for doctors, lower health care insurance costs and improve safety for patients, and provide healthcare for the uninsured.
HealthCare 2.0 works this way: Patients would voluntarily participate. They would assign their rights to sue for medical malpractice to the health insurance carrier. In exchange, the patient gets a lower insurance premium, access to disability and life insurance and guarantees that patient safety systems have been implemented.
The carrier and physicians develop algorithms for cost-effective treatment of certain conditions. If physicians adhere to these guidelines, they are immunized from any lawsuit.
The carrier will only sue - and then only under agreed-upon limits of recovery - if the physician has not followed the guidelines, the patient has been injured and there is evidence of negligence. If there is a recovery, some or all of it goes to the patient.
Plans are for HealthCare 2.0 to enter the marketplace by being sublicensed to insurance carriers, healthcare organizations or both. The patent is licensed to the parent company, Medical Justice Services Inc. (MJI), of which Segal is principal. MJI fights frivolous lawsuits against physicians in 47 states.
For everyone in the health care system, HealthCare 2.0 represents a new answer.
"HealthCare 2.0 specifically addresses the critical issues in medicine today: access to healthcare, patient safety, frequency of frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits and rising healthcare premiums," said Segal. "The primary benefit of the system is that it addresses the unique concerns of each party who provides or receives services in the healthcare system."
Most importantly, the system does not have to take away from one group to give to another - and it overcomes the objections to other proposed solutions such as caps on non-economic damages and health courts.
Joseph Stern, M.D., a neurosurgeon who is familiar with HealthCare 2.0, said the idea centers on what can be gained by cooperation.
"If you consider this carefully, HealthCare 2.0 is about giving," Stern said. "Everyone, the doctor, the hospital, the patient, the insurance carrier, gives a little in return for getting much more than they put in.
"What we all get is an opportunity to again practice compassionate healing medicine - and be the recipient of that care - and to concentrate completely on what is going on in the operating room rather than what might happen later in a courtroom. With HealthCare 2.0, everybody wins."
About Medical Justice Services, Inc. - Run by physicians for physicians, Medical Justice is a membership-based organization that offers proactive services designed to deter frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits and reduce physicians risk of litigation. The new "HealthCare 2.0" system broadens the solutions available to address today's critical healthcare access issues.
Currently, Medical Justice Services, Inc. represents more than 1,400 physician plan members in 47 states. Please visit our website at www.medicaljustice.com.
Medical Justice is a trademark of Medical Justice Corp. All rights reserved.
Patented 6272471, 6615181, and pending.