HACKARD & HOLT IN THE NEWS
Lawyers Pursue Clients On Web: Hospital Slams Ads That Recruit Patients Of Two Redding Heart Doctors For Lawsuits
Dorsey Griffith, Bee Medical Writer -- The website's headline minces no words: "Unnecessary Heart Procedures at Redding Medical Center are Ruining Lives."
It's just one piece of a sophisticated recruitment campaign by attorneys seeking patients of two doctors [Dr. Chae Hyun Moon and Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez, Jr.] now under federal and state investigation for allegedly performing unnecessary heart procedures and surgeries.
The advertising blitz seems to be paying off. Lawyers for Drs. Chae Hyun Moon and Fidel Realyvasquez Jr. say they have been notified that more than 300 civil cases may be filed against their clients, the hospital where they practice and the hospital's parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corp.
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Robert Zimmerman, a Sacramento attorney working for surgeon Realyvasquez, added that the advertising brings out the worst in people.
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Many patients view it differently.
"It's been hard to see all these newspaper articles," said Adrienne Cavalleri, a 61-year-old Redding woman who had a double bypass at Redding Medical Center in July 2001 and this week contacted an attorney. "I am asking myself, 'Did I really need the surgery?' I'd like to be able to find out if I did."
The proliferation of civil cases has created a tangled legal web even before papers are officially filed with the court.
Just last week, lawyers for both sides met with a Shasta Superior Court judge, who asked them to come up with ways to ease the anticipated deluge. Already, there is talk of consolidating claims to streamline the court proceedings.
It has been less than three months since federal agents raided the doctors' [Dr. Chae Hyun Moon and Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez, Jr.] offices in Redding looking for evidence that the two fraudulently billed Medicare for unnecessary heart procedures and surgeries.
Neither doctor [Dr. Chae Hyun Moon or Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez, Jr.] has been charged with any crime but that has not stopped attorneys from reaching out to former patients willing to file civil suits.
At least a half-dozen law firms are looking for people who have had invasive heart catheterizations, angioplasties, bypass or valve surgeries at the hands of either of the two doctors [Dr. Chae Hyun Moon and Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez, Jr.].
The bulk of the cases will allege corporate fraud in addition to medical negligence, attorneys said. The fraud allegations are based on the premise that hospital managers ignored concerns raised by other physicians about Moon and Realyvasquez.
In California, medical malpractice awards for pain and suffering top out at $250,000, while damages for economic losses stemming from malpractice are unlimited. Awards stemming from fraud also are unlimited, and that has some setting their sights on Tenet, which boasts quarterly profits in the billions.
"Tenet has, I believe, formulated and carried out a national policy of establishing facilities, obtaining personnel and encouraging significant numbers of high billable procedures," said David Smith, an attorney with the Sacramento firm Hackard & Holt, who is among those preparing to file cases. "There is an emerging profile that is not limited to Redding and California."
Some of the lawyers involved practice in Redding, but others represent large out-of-town firms known for multimillion-dollar personal injury cases stemming from breast implants, defective hip replacements and the diet drug treatment Phen-Fen.
Many of the firms have used mass media -- television, radio, the Internet and newspapers -- to advertise for potential clients in the case.
John Reese, Moon's Redding-based attorney, did not object to the advertising.
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Hackard & Holt is using numerous forms of advertising to solicit clients, following the broad reach of the doctors' [Dr. Chae Hyun Moon and Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez, Jr.] practices -- throughout Northern California and even into Oregon and Nevada.
"In this case, we have a high index of suspicion that a substantial number of people underwent unnecessary procedures and suffered substantial harm," said attorney Smith. "The only way to acquire those clients is to make your interest known to the public."
Smith said the Web has proved the most effective method.
"When they are comparing Firm A with Firm B, the Internet is such an invaluable source of information," he said. "Increasingly, your average truck-driving Joes are using the Internet to become better-advised citizens."
Smith and other personal injury attorneys have placed ads on search engines such as Google, so that when someone searches for information about the case, the ads top their results.
Three of the sites describe the investigation, offer links to news coverage and tout their own qualifications and accomplishments.
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Smith's website includes a form that makes it easy for patients to check off the name of the doctor(s) they saw, the test(s) they were given and the procedure(s) or surger(ies) they had. With one click, the patient submits the form directly to the firm, triggering a more extensive telephone interview.
That interview, in turn, could lead to requests for medical charts, which would have to be reviewed by medical experts before a suit is filed.
"This is dull stuff," said Smith, who in the early 1990s was involved in litigation against National Medical Enterprises, now Tenet Healthcare Corp. "It's not the legal feeding frenzy. It's a slow, meticulous effort."
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Although a few civil lawsuits already have been filed, attorneys on both sides predict it could be weeks -- even months -- before the bulk of them turn up in Superior Court.
That's because of delays in getting medical records and copies of test results necessary to determine whether a procedure was needed. Many of those records are still in the hands of federal investigators who seized the documents in the Oct. 30 raid.