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Volume 17 • Issue 6 • $5.00 December 2020
THE REGION’S MONTHLY NEWSPAPER FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & PHYSICIANS

2020: A Year “So Now What?” Medical

In Review Healthcare Organizations Wonder Malpractice

What’s Next under a New President

and a Divided Government

BY CALVIN GLIDEWELL

The four years of the Trump Administration have been
a decidedly mixed bag for providers. The President’s sig-
nature attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to insti-
tute Medicare and Medicaid spending reductions, to
impose stricter requirements on Medicaid eligibility, and
to foist upon providers new regulations related to price
transparency and interoperability have left many providers
on their heels waiting for the next shoe to drop. There has
been plenty of rhetoric (but not much action) on issues
Dr. Tracy Romanello
important to consumers like pharmaceutical pricing and Calvin Glidewell Matt Gracey
surprise billing. Among providers, there has been rela-
tively slow adoption and middling performance of value-based care strategies. And State Report
How 2020 let’s not forget the raging pandemic which has had an overwhelming negative effect
on the healthcare industry.
So now what? We may likely have a divided government which will make sweep-
Revealed Health ing healthcare reform difficult, if not impossible. However, that doesn’t mean there Gives Doctors
won’t be incremental reform, and here are four major categories of healthcare propos- Good Idea of
Inequities in the als and initiatives.
Continued on page 14 Which Insurers
Midst of a
Real Estate Settle or Fight
Pandemic
LEO A DALY: Intentional Design Malpractice

BY DR. TRACY ROMANELLO Global Perspective, Local Insight Claims

Over a year ago, I wrote an article
entitled, “She Has Horrible Pain … BY BARBARA R. FALLON BY VANESSA ORR
Won’t Someone Please Help Us” fea-
tured in November 2019 and reprinted Founded in 1915 and in prac- For more than 20 years, Florida’s
again in November 2020. It included my tice in Florida for more than 50 Office of Insurance Regulation has put
commentary on our collective “pain” years, LEO A DALY, is an architec- out an annual report on the condition of
navigating the challenging healthcare ture, planning, engineering, interi- the medical malpractice insurance mar-
landscape in providing access to quality or design, and program manage- ket that provides an inside look at insur-
pain management and safely prescribing ment firm with a world-wide pres- ers regarding strength, claims responses
medications, including opioids. Then, ence in a variety of industries. and more. The October 2020 report,
the opiate crisis was a key focus in our Consistently ranked among the which focuses on the top 20 medical
national attention and forefront on our top design firms, this organization malpractice companies in the state, is
consciousness. While gravely important has earned national prominence especially useful when trying to find out
still, it seems slight and overshadowed for pioneering the use of an inter- Joshua Theodore Eduardo Egea which insurance carriers litigate claims
when compared to the gargantuan crises disciplinary “whole project” team versus how many close their cases with
of today. 2020 brought forth an unimag- approach that ensures creative efficiency, coordination, and client satisfaction, notably in payments.
inable year - a global pandemic with health care. In 2020, amidst the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic, that ‘forward “What we find most useful is the
growing numbers of sufferers and thinking’ legacy continues to serve their clients well. closed claims data chart, which lets us
deaths potentially reaping even more Joshua Theodore, VP, Global Health Practice Leader and Eduardo Egea, Vice President, understand each company’s claims phi-
havoc until promising vaccines are Miami Healthcare Leader, are both graduates of Clemson University’s College of losophy,” said Matt Gracey, CEO and
widely available, a politically charged Architecture, with Eduardo completing his Master of Architecture and Health, the most medical malpractice insurance specialist
presidential election year with serious established program in the U.S. The curriculum concentrates on relationships between at Danna-Gracey, the largest independent
healthcare implications contributing to architectural settings and their impact on human health and well-being. They talked medical malpractice insurance agency in
varying degrees of anxiety, and also a about the firm’s philosophy, shared passionately by 800 skilled employees which allows Florida. “Are they going to fight a claim
social reckoning seen in response to the them to exceed health care client expectations for innovative, cost effective efficiencies, that’s defensible, or settle everything
killing of George Floyd and as wit- broad application flexibility, and code compliant sustainability to create an improved they can to avoid a big shock loss?
nessed in apparent health disparities patient journey. “Some insurers take the position that

Continued on page 13 Continued on page 21 Continued on page 18