5/21:GiveForward partners with Medical Bill Mediation to help families reduce high medical bills
GiveForward, a crowdfunding leader helping families and friends raise money for a loved one's medical bills, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Medical Bill Mediation of the Karis Group, Inc., a service which helps patients consolidate and reduce their healthcare bills. This alliance stems from both organizations' shared mission of empowering patients to face the rising cost of healthcare in America. read
5/20:State Supreme Court Mandates Arbitration in Nursing Home Death Case
The Florida Supreme Court recently made it more difficult for the families of wrongful death victims to have their cases heard in court. In February, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a mandatory arbitration agreement signed by an elderly nursing home patient extended to, and was binding on, his estate and heirs. Many states refuse to enforce binding arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts, as they can be unconscionably biased in favor of the nursing home, but the justices refused to make such a declaration in this case. read
5/14:Arbitration Fairness Act of 2013 Introduced in Congress
As discussed by the American Association for Justice, the new law seeks to end the abusive practice of so many large corporations, including nursing home conglomerates, that seek to insulate themselves from legal accountability with forced arbitration. As the AAJ summarized, the law is critically needed, because when it comes to arbitration, “The process is secretive, costly and rigged so that corporations cannot be held accountable. By removing access to justice, it grants corporations a license to steal and violate the law.” read
4/29:Stryker Hip Settlements Subject of New Mediation Order
A mediation order has been given in regard to Stryker hip lawsuits pending in New Jersey consolidation. The judge overseeing the coordination has issued the mediation order to see whether Stryker hip settlements are possible, even while the litigation process continues. read
4/24:Parents Temporarily Lose PCB Advocate as NYLPI Enters Mediation With City
Parents are losing a major advocate in their fight against toxic PCBs in the city's schools, as the leading activists are taking a temporary step back from the battle to enter mediation with the Department of Education. read
4/23:Mediator to triage health exchange problems
Sparring between Colorado’s Medicaid managers and those building the state’s new health exchange prompted an outside analyst to recommend a “third party to triage and manage the project.” A mediator from the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation now will come to Colorado to help managers get the giant multi-million dollar project off the ground on time by Oct. 1 when it’s slated to open to consumers. read
4/17:Defending Against Nursing Home Arbitration Clauses in Neglect Cases
There are times when nursing home neglect attorneys can successfully challenge an arbitration clause and allow a traditional lawsuit to be brought. read
4/11:Lawsuit over Mahwah company's recalled hip implants headed for mediation
Stryker Orthopaedics and some of the 133 people suing the company will attempt to settle claims related to the Mahwah company's recalled hip implants through mediation. read
3/20:Mediating non-compete disputes in the medical device industry
The medical device industry remains a hotbed for non-compete litigation, and the reason is plain and simple. Economic justification. Sales reps develop close relationships with surgeons who purchase millions of dollars worth of medical devices each year. read
3/20:John Kitzhaber signs medical lawsuit mediation bill
Gov. John Kitzhaber signed a bill Monday creating a new process for patients, doctors and health care providers to mediate disputes over medical errors. read
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What's New
Healthcare Collaboration: The Experience at One Hospital (5/03/13) Holly Hayes At Cleveland Clinic, a patient was asked to keep a journal of all the caregivers she saw over her five-day stay. She noted eight doctors, 60 nurses and so many others she lost track. The journal didn’t even track staff from non-clinical areas – food services, parking or billing. A May 2013 Harvard Business Review article by James I. Merlino and Ananth Raman reported on the Cleveland Clinic’s effort to get everyone in the organization to start thinking like a caregiver.
Filters and Frames: Mediation is all About the Viewfinder (4/26/13) Stephanie West Allen Our brains are vigilant, hyperaware of any sensed change to see if it represents danger. Partly because they use a lot of our energy, our brains seek to deal with new information quickly and easily. So, rather like a photographer, the brain applies filters and frames. The filters shift, accentuate, and diminish what is seen. And the frames limit what is viewed to certain boundaries.
Signing Arbitration Contracts on Admission to a Nursing Home – Who Is Bound? (4/08/13) Richard Birke As our population ages, more and more people are being admitted to nursing homes at or near the end of their lives. But when a person is admitted to a nursing home and they sign a contract agreeing to arbitrate any disputes arising out of the care they receive, should their heirs and the estate be bound by that contract?
Conflict Competency in Healthcare Organizations (3/22/13) Ann Begler Ann Begler describes the interaction between mediators and healthcare organizations. She believes that both fields need each other and could be a benefit to the other field.
Mediation in Healthcare in European Union (3/07/13)
HOPE has recently published a report entitled Mediation in Healthcare, which presents the results of a survey aiming at comparing the scope and methodology of conflict resolution in the healthcare sector in the different EU Member States.
Is Your Clients' Conflict Water, Ice, or Vapor? Insights from the Science of Complexity (2/22/13) Stephanie West Allen Reading the Executive Summary of a presentation that will be given this week in Davos reminded me of some of the problems with the use of neuroscience in conflict resolution: reductionism, for example. And reminded me that mediators should be paying as much (maybe more) attention to complexity as they are to neuroscience. Why, you may ask?
Fairness: It Is All About Perception (2/22/13) Phyllis Pollack Cultural norms are viewed along a collectivism-individualism continuum. If a culture is collective, it places stronger emphasis on the group as a whole. If the culture is individualistic, it places stronger emphasis on the individual’s personal goals and interests.
Burnout in Healthcare (2/22/13) Holly Hayes Health care has always been a stressful profession. Think high-stakes work, too many patients, overwhelmed employees. It all adds up to lots of potential conflict, and that’s bad news for patient care, safety, and satisfaction. Now, throw health reform changes linking reimbursement to quality and patient perception of care metrics into the mix and the implications are clear: Managers must help employees handle conflicts productively. If not, the organization may not survive.
A Survey of Public Awareness of Elder Mediation In Northeast and Central Ohio (2/15/13) John Bertschler, Patricia Bertschler As private practitioners in the field of mediation over the past fifteen years, we have struggled along with our professional colleagues nationwide to increase public awareness of alternative dispute resolution, particularly mediation. We have been gratified to see awareness grow due to the work of many individuals and professional advocacy groups, as evidenced by this survey.
AudioBlog: Resistance is Fertile (2/15/13) Patricia Porter In Your Brain on Conflict series, we kick off with Scott Rogers, Founder and Director of the Institute for Mindfulness Studies. What happens in our brain when we are engaged in an emotionally-charged conflict? Neuroscience or brain science has emerged with answers that help us begin to understand the physiological, emotional, and cognitive impact on us in these types of situations.
Another Study on Fairness (2/01/13) Phyllis Pollack Researchers have wondered how long ago did our ancestors acquire a sense of “fairness”? The latest research, published a few weeks ago, claims that this sense of fairness arose millions of years ago, “… before our ancestors split off from the evolutionary lines leading to other primates.” (Id.) The principal author of the study is Darby Proctor of Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta.
Special Needs Education Dispute Resolution (1/18/13) Sherri Donovan Caring for a special needs child involves an often overwhelming lifelong commitment that introduces an added strain to the parents’ own relationship, which can increase the likelihood of divorce. Mediation can be especially valuable to divorcing parents of a special needs child—both during and after the divorce process itself. This articles helps parents to discuss special considerations for themselves and their children.
Shhh. It's a Secret! (1/04/13) Don Cripe This article discusses mediation cases involving insurance carriers. It discusses how mediators can resolve personal injury cases--specifically when one party enters the mediation with a perception of unfairness. 3 Comments
How to Talk About Guns (12/27/12) Joe Markowitz As the nation embarks on a debate about how to reduce gun violence, it might be a good idea to set some ground rules. First rule: it's useless to frame this issue in terms of constitutional rights. The meaning of the Second Amendment is a legal question that is determined by the Supreme Court. 1 Comment
Mirror Neurons - the Most Hyped Concept in Neuroscience? (12/14/12) Stephanie West Allen Which is more hyped? Mirror neurons or oxytocin? I guess it depends on the day you're asking, or the blogs you are reading, or the conferences you are attending. There's is no doubt that the silliness surrounding both is a wonder to watch.
Negotiating Happiness: Managing Peoples' Predictably Irrational Focusing Illusions. Part 2: Negotiation Strategies and Techniques (11/26/12) Robert Benjamin 'Rationally Irrational' Negotiation Strategies and Techniques For Managing Focusing Illusions. This is Part 2 or a two part series. Where Part 1 of Negotiating Happiness suggested how most people concoct a focusing illusion of what will make them happy in life and that most conflicts can usefully be understood as collisions between peoples' differing notions of happiness, Part 2 addresses the 'rationally irrational' negotiation strategies and techniques that are necessary to shift and re-direct peoples' focusing illusions in order to more effectively settle matters in dispute.
Memory is a Creative Activity (11/05/12) Stephanie West Allen Memory is not like a video camera; it's malleable, shifting and changing with time, place, and mood. That's why, in mediation, the story of a conflict is not as important as the role and place of the current versions of the story in the path towards resolution.
Nurses Addressing Conflict (8/13/12) Holly Hayes The Nurse Together blog has posted a four-part series on conflict in the healthcare setting. The first part looks at the sources and cost of conflict.
When Insurance, Not Law, Is Key (7/02/12) Douglas Emerick Mediation is prime for insurance disputes because it allows for a truly neutral expert in insurance coverages, customs and practices to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the case. This article discusses how mediating these disputes places more importance on insurance than law.
Give us a Break: Mediation Marathon or Some Conflict Calm? Another Case for Mindful Reflection (7/02/12) Stephanie West Allen As each day passes, the pace of life seems to accelerate – demands on productivity continue ever upward and there is hardly ever a moment when we aren’t, in some way, in touch with our family, friends, or coworkers. While moments for reflection may be hard to come by, a new article suggests that the long-lost art of introspection —even daydreaming — may be an increasingly valuable part of life.
Self-Reflection (5/29/12) Diane Cohen Questions such as: “Who do I want to be?” and “What assumptions am I making about what I want to do or what will make me happy or what comports with my values or my morality?” can yield answers that not only have an impact on the direction of one’s entire life but on the conflict at hand.
What Women's Initiatives Need (5/21/12) Victoria Pynchon It’s not at all surprising that most women’s initiatives at most AmLaw200 law firms have been dismal failures. They failed because they lack buy-in; are often unfunded; and, no one takes them seriously.
Keys to Successful Mediation: Understanding Brain Wiring and the Complex Listening Dynamic (5/20/12) Gloria Vanderhorst, Ellen Kandell Shifting your clients from positional, competitive mindsets to more
cooperative and collaborative thinking where creative and mutually
beneficial solutions can be generated is the goal of most dispute resolution
professionals. This article explores some of the brain's structure and
functions and how they contribute to the natural competitive and
collaborative instincts that operate simultaneously.
California Legislation Would Add Legal Malpractice Exception to Strict Mediation Confidentiality Statute (5/15/12) Keith Seat
Legislation has been introduced in California to provide a narrow exception to the state’s strict mediation confidentiality statute so that clients may use communications with their own attorneys during mediation if needed to assert claims of professional negligence or misconduct against their counsel in later proceedings. This legislation follows the January 2011 decision by the California Supreme Court in Cassel v. Superior Court, which rejected the Court of Appeal’s creation of a judicial exception to the confidentiality statute, and prevented a party from using his private communications with his attorneys before and during a mediation in a later action for legal malpractice. The Court relied on the plain language of the statue and stated that any exception must come from the legislature.
Mediation or Meditation? (5/14/12) John Sturrock Much has been written about the human brain in recent times. Eolene reminded us that the brain has two components, the limbic brain, which developed as homo sapiens dealt with primitive conditions and learned the importance of fight or flight. Later, the neo-cortex, the more rational part of the brain, was formed. But the two were – and are – not united. Our emotions could still override logic, especially under pressure. We are not Mr. Spock.
Dopamine Related to Motivation? (5/07/12) Stephanie West Allen After reading books such as Psychology's Ghosts: The Crisis in the Profession and the Way Back, I am even more likely to see most research studies as, at best, clues, and clues only only in the material world. That's how I view this study written about below, but I post the news release here because I can never be reminded too often that we are each different; this study is another reminder that one size does not fit all.
Too Happy??? (4/23/12) Phyllis Pollack Science never ceases to amaze me. Now there is a study that finds that being too happy is not a good thing. According to an article in the April 2, 2012 edition of The Washington Post entitled “Too much happiness can make you unhappy, studies show”, one can be less happy by being so happy. Sounds oxymoronic to me!
The Mediator as Healer? (4/17/12) Nigel Singer I have been a mediator for years, but only recently have I been toying with the idea that my role is a healer. This is a transition for me and an ongoing process. I am working through this concept and how it affects my identity. I also wonder how it changes my approach to my clients. 1 Comment
How Important is Mindset to Conflict Resolution? (4/09/12) Stephanie West Allen What's your mindset about conflict? Those conflicts that you may be a party to and those that you work with as a conflict professional? What's your mindset about the role of a mediator? Before you answer those questions, read this good overview article about mindsets and their strong influence.
Lowering Malpractice Risk through Disclosure (3/26/12) Holly Hayes The University of Michigan Health System implemented a system to respond to patient injuries and medical malpractice claims and has “lowered its average monthly cost rates for liability, patient compensation, reserves, and non-compensation legal costs” as well as reducing “its average monthly rate of new claims from 7.03 to 4.52 claims per 100,000 patient encounters, decreased the average monthly rate of lawsuits from 2.13 to 0.75 per 100,000 patient encounters, and reduced the time between claim reporting and resolution”.
Nursing Focus on Conflict Engagement (3/12/12) Holly Hayes The American Nurse, the official publication of the American Nurses Association, published the article The Art of Engagement: Nurses, ANA work to address conflict. Here is an excerpt:
Mediate.com: A Reality Check (10/17/11) Steffi Berkowitz You are about to read an atypical article/testimony honoring two October celebrations. In truth, both are dedicated to raising awareness, promoting education and helping people understand options on a journey they did not seek. In truth, both provide a respite for determining outcomes by building knowledge and support irrespective of heart-rendering tales and underlying stories.
Mediation Helps Reduce Med Mal Litigation (9/06/11) Keith Seat
The number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania declined for the sixth year in a row, with attorneys attributing the decrease to private mediation, among other changes. The current number of med mal lawsuits is now only about half the peak in 2002.
