Poliner Decision Reversed by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

The Poliner case generated much attention and concern when a jury awarded $366 million in damages to a Texas cardiologist who challenged a peer review action. (The damages were later reduced to $22 million.)

On July 23rd the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision, holding that the actions of the hospital and its Chair of Internal Medicine were protected under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act.  Horty Springer has posted the full text of the court's decision on their web site: Poliner v. Texas Health Systems.

Thanks to Nena Ickes, CPMSM, CPCS, from 3M Health Information Systems, for this breaking news tip. 

Previous MSSPNexus posts about Poliner

http://msspnexus.blogs.com/mspblog/2006/03/court_upholds_j.html

http://msspnexus.blogs.com/mspblog/2006/12/follow_your_byl.html