Health Care Mediation Section
Health Care Mediation Articles
Instead of Saying...
A person who has a mental illness shares some tips on things she would prefer hearing instead of "get well soon."
The Mindful Mediator
I have written in the past about how “being present” (or, in the moment) is the single-most important ingredient I bring to a mediation.
Federally Funded Nursing Homes No Longer Allowed to Require Residents to Sign Binding Arbitration Agreements
Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a regulation that bans federally funded long-term care facilities such as nursing homes from using pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements.
Hospice and Conflict Resolution
Conflict can touch anyone, at any time of life. In this article, I talk about end-of-life conflict, specifically those disputes related to hospice. I explore who is involved, why disputes arise, and reasons they are hard to resolve. I also speak about the importance of having a mediator as part of the hospice team.
Miscommunication: A Symptom, Not Just a Cause
The communication problems that happen in the mediation session might be symptoms of the conflict.
Dallas COA Compels Arbitration in Injured Nurse’s Lawsuit Against Former Employer
Texas’ Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas has ordered an injured nurse’s lawsuit filed against his former employer to arbitration.
Risk Taking: It is a Matter of Biology.
Are you a risk taker? Or, are you a risk averter?
Surgeons’ Apologies Decrease Lawsuits: How Can that be News?
I read an article on CNN that explains that when surgeons and other medical providers apologize after they’ve made a mistake, people are less likely to sue. What I found hard to swallow was that the story was considered newsworthy.
Texas Supreme Court Will Not Review Case Where Post-Arbitration Discovery Ordered Due to Neutral’s Alleged Evident Partiality
The Supreme Court of Texas has denied a party’s request to review the Dallas Appeals Court’s decision allowing post-arbitration discovery in a case that was filed by an injured worker.
SCOTUS Denies Cert in Nursing Home Arbitration Case
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to review a decision of the Supreme Court of Texas that enforced a pre-dispute arbitration clause in an agreement a patient signed with a nursing home pre-admission. After the patient died, her family sued the nursing home in state court alleging negligent care and wrongful death.
Do You Have Your Primary Care Lawyer?
Most people have a primary care physician. But people and small businesses don’t often have a primary care lawyer.
Crisis Negotiation: From Suicide to Terrorism Intervention
This is a snippet from a chapter which uses an account of a real-life crisis negotiation to explore what is know about these high-stakes, emotion-fueled interactions. We begin by reviewing literature relevant to four different interaction periods within the case: first impressions and the verbal and nonverbal factors that effect initial exchanges; rapport development and the communicative skills that facilitate information gathering; sensemaking and the frameworks that help negotiators understand the motivations of their interlocutor; and, influence strategies and their impact on moving a perpetrator from antagonism to cooperation.
On the Question of a Party's Capacity to Use Mediation
A mediator came to me for a consult with an intriguing situation while co-mediating a Harassment Prevention case in a local court. I analyze the situation in this article.
Consolidation and Conflict in the Health Care Industry
The health care industry has experienced a significant increase in consolidations among providers of facilities and services alike. From drugs to devices to service providers, 2014 saw the largest consolidation within the health care industry in the past 20 years. - See more at: http://jamsadrblog.com/#sthash.AQhZ4CpV.dpuf
Avoiding the Uncertainty of a Medical Malpractice Trial
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provides viable and attractive alternatives to jury trials as a means of resolving medical legal disputes arising out of allegations of professional negligence. The two primary alternatives to a jury trial for medical malpractice cases are mediation and binding arbitration.
Dissolution- Don’t let the Resolve Dissolve
I was helping this couple, Jane and John of course, sort out the details of their divorce. The item that was the most difficult to “separate” was the china cabinet. They had invested time, and money, and both had an attachment to it. We were on our 3rd session and they had been able to remain in the same room every time. When we discussed the cabinet they got real snippy so it was time to visit with them separately.
Let’s Talk: Charlie Hebdo, Immigration, Terror and Prejudice -- Notes Toward a Proposal for Dialogue over Difficult and Dangerous Issues
As wars, religious and political differences, and international problems such as global warming, environmental degradation and poverty expand their reach, importance and severity, stimulating mass migrations and deepening social tensions, we are increasingly forced to recognize that military solutions cannot succeed; that legal processes take too long to implement; and that diplomacy does not reach deep enough into the ranks of those who are drawn to violence.
Evaluating a Consensus Building Effort
I worry a lot about how to evaluate the success or failure of consensus building efforts in which I get involved. When I try to convince someone in a position of responsibility to commit to consensus building, I need to tell them how they'll be able to gauge the results.
Conflict and Psychological Development: “Six Stages of Conflict Reasoning”
In the 1960’s the psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) listed six stages of moral development. Kohlberg says these stages can’t be jumped, you have to go through them in order. And they are universal, they apply no matter what culture you’re in. With a little thought we can link these to conflict and conflict resolution. Kohlberg’s stages don’t only tell us about a person’s moral reasoning, they also tell us what kind of conflict they get into and how we can help them to deal with it.
Divorce: Emergency Tumor Removal Surgery
Analogizing health care with other emergent situations may be a stretch to some, but it is valid. Couples on the bumpy glide to divorce are almost always in pain; they are facing one of the most dramatic life changes they will ever experience (some social scientists liken divorce to the death of a family member); the finances of the crisis are always a concern; and life after divorce will be disrupted for an indefinite time.
The Managed Mediation of a Payor-Provider Health Care Dispute
Typically, more than 95 percent of mediations are initiated by one or two parties who agreed on a mediator, scheduled the mediation, filed a brief and showed up at the mediation session. The mediation session is often the first time the parties discuss the issues with the mediator or each other.
Federal Judge Orders Sugar Land Nursing Home Visitation Dispute to Mediation
A Sugar Land nursing home dispute that arose after an elderly resident’s family was banned from a long-term care facility over a number of social media posts has reportedly been ordered to mediation. According to a complaint filed in the Southern District of Texas, Silverado Senior Living barred a woman’s two sons and daughter-in-law from the premises after the individuals refused to remove several photos and videos of their mother at the facility from their social media accounts.
Truths in Advertising
Several times in the course of my life I’ve been involved with a cohort of people who envisioned themselves as a possible vanguard of fundamental social change even while they were pursuing professional careers In fact, many of the early mediation practitioners were also veterans of civil rights and anti-war activities who were drawn to ADR as an alternative path to justice, equality, and social change.
Building Trust in Volatile Situations
The recent "Siege in Sydney" provided me with the chance to consider how the Trust Edge illustrates a workable approach even in the most volatile, life-threatening and unpredictable situations.
Fear Comes to School: Mediating Among Parents Around Ebola
As medical personnel, emergency aid workers, and diplomatic personnel return to the U.S. from West Africa, schools must manage tensions between local families who are fearful for their own children, and parents who have been at the front lines attempting to stem the epidemic. What mediator strategies may prove useful?