Mary Lewis, Esq.
marylewislaw.com

More and more of my clients are being turned away by doctors when seeking treatment for injuries incurred in automobile collisions. What seems to be a growing trend for doctors’ groups adopting blanket policies against treating patients injured in automobile collisions is creating a real problem for these patients who genuinely need treatment and are having increasing difficulty finding it. For the doctors turning them away, it does not appear to matter the nature of the injuries sustained, the specialty of the medical group, whether or not the patient was a long-time patient of the practice, or whether or not litigation is involved. Nor does it seem to matter whether the patient has health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or PeachCare, which would cover the cost of the treatments sought. Based on my personal observations, the problem is widespread and not limited to a few areas of practice. My clients have encountered it when seeking care from orthopedic, neurologic, surgical, physical therapy, general, and pediatric practices.

by Andy Flink
Trainer Mediator
Flink Consulting, LLC

At the start of every mediation I’m always thinking (and of course hoping) that we’ll walk out of the room with a full agreement. While this doesn’t always happen and partial agreements are the next best option, there are reasons why we may end up with no agreement at all.

Some mediations reach impasse in the first 15 minutes, others in the last 15 minutes after 10 hours of negotiating. Sometimes it’s obvious as to why there is no agreement, other times it isn’t so clear. What causes all of our hard work to unravel? Why did a done deal all of a sudden fall apart? There are many reasons why cases don’t settle, but here are the ones I see the most often that typically send mediations into a tailspin: