Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

Last week, the fight between Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and the state Legislature over health care claimed another victim. The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHCCC) shut down last week because the Legislature tied its reauthorization bill to renewing doctors' subsidies for medical malpractice insurance, something Governor Rendell said he would not do unless the Legislature authorized his proposed expansion of state-subsidized health care coverage to include small business owners and working Pennsylvanians earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

The PHCCC is an agency that collects data on the health care system in Pennsylvania, and issues reports on state health care statistics, including hospital finances, the average length of hospitalization for patients, as well as rates of mortality, infection, complication, and readmission for various populations. Although Senator Pat Vance and other Republican Senators questioned the governor's statutory authority to close down the agency, the governor's office said that the agency was no longer authorized when its charter expired. All but two of the agency's 45 employees were released as part of the shut down, and some have voiced concerns about the future of the millions of records stored by the agency.

Many have advised hospitals to continue collecting statistics in the hopes that the agency may reopen, but if you have been hurt as a result of doctor's negligence, you know that more than statistics are at stake. The monitoring of hospitals and the publication of information on negligent doctors is important. Even without the agency, though, you can make your case known. Contact the experienced medical malpractice lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, today for a free initial consultation.