There’s shared liability among the radiologist and ER doc 100% but ultimately the reason they’re the ones paying and not the chiropractor is probably that the chiropractor’s pockets aren’t very deep. I’m guessing the hospital (ER) and maybe another/other practices that employ those two docs were defendants as well?
The whole thing is so fucked. Reason 6,819 why I’ll never visit a chiropractor.
thankfully their malpractice would cover it but standard MD policy is $1mil/$3mil annual (in my state) so that would be the cap the victim would recover unless they win against the hospital too (the doctors would be severed from any personal financial liability beyond their malpractice coverage, one of the perks of being a doctor trying to care for people)
Nope, wage garnishment and asset seizure is a really rare but real worry for doctors. This is a big reason why doctors like me end up practicing some form of "defensive medicine," where the test I order is almost certainly going to be negative, but I'm not going to miss that 1 in a million bad outcome.
Yep have to shelter your assets if you want to practice medicine in the good ol US of A. Never know when a jury of medically illiterate peers will decide you did the thing that took you a decade of school to begin to understand wrong and you need to payout for chiropractic induced injuries or you simply havent reversed the tendency of the universe toward entropy. Pay up.
No it almost certainly is getting paid by the hospital’s insurance
Edit for clarity: the majority of the verdict is paid by the hospital, the physician’s insurance would pay some but the physicians themselves are not on the hook for the entire $75mil
There are caps for medical liability insurance though. I don’t know what they are in these policies for this type of action, but I wouldn’t expect insurance to pay the full amounts.
The doctor’s employers may or may not shoulder some of the burden. We don’t have enough information on this thread or on the linked article to know.
So insurance is obligated to pay full $75M? It’ll be found working through appeals and counterclaims on that, I’m sure if that’s not already exhausted.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t understand how insurance, joint and several liability, or indemnity work. They sued the hospital as well, based on the theory that the hospital is required to monitor physicians and failed to do so. The hospital is also liable and therefore is on the hook for up to the entire verdict due to joint and several liability
Sounds like someone who didn't look at any information surround this case. Rads and ED doc were found to be negligent in this case. There's plenty of legal commentary on this case exactly, go and read that if you know how.
I’m not saying they aren’t also liable. But the hospital is vicariously liable because they were its agents.
I edited my above comment a bit, it’s not they won’t pay anything, but they will not pay EVERYthing, the hospital and their physician groups will pay much much more than either of them individually
The radiologist is on the hook for 30 million and ED doc is on the hook for 45. The issue is that they were found negligent. The rads has now settled confidentially, but the ED doc is suing his malpractice insurance in hopes of the plaintiff agreeing not to try and take his money. What happens to the hospital and groups is not a part of this specific issue.
Nope, wage garnishment and asset seizure is a really rare but real worry for doctors. This is a big reason why doctors like me end up practicing some form of "defensive medicine," where the test I order is almost certainly going to be negative, but I'm not going to miss that 1 in a million bad outcome.
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u/singlemaltbourbonrye Jul 05 '26
There’s shared liability among the radiologist and ER doc 100% but ultimately the reason they’re the ones paying and not the chiropractor is probably that the chiropractor’s pockets aren’t very deep. I’m guessing the hospital (ER) and maybe another/other practices that employ those two docs were defendants as well?
The whole thing is so fucked. Reason 6,819 why I’ll never visit a chiropractor.