Texas: Malpractice Payment of $8,750 for Injury to a Female Patient under 20 Years Old (2012)

In 2012, a medical malpractice insurance company made a payment on behalf of a professional counselor in Texas for approximately* $8,750. Payment was made in response to a claim of medical malpractice claim involving what was described as an emotional injury to a female patient between 10 and 20 years old. The nature of the claim is broadly described as: "behavioral health related." The payment report submitted by Unreported described the allegations in the claim as "Wrong or Misdiagnosis" and "Breach of Patient Confidentiality."

* The payment amount is approximate because the National Practitioner Data Bank codes payments as a range value. The report's description of $8,750 corresponds to a malpractice payment somewhere between $7,501 and $10,000.

Claim at a Glance

Year of Payment: 2012

Location: Texas

First Allegation: Wrong or Misdiagnosis

Second Allegation: Breach of Patient Confidentiality

Act or Omission: 2002

Second Act or Omission: 2002

Payment Range: Between $7,501 and $10,000

Nature of Claim: Behavioral Health Related

Payer: Insurance Company - Primary Coverage

Type of Care: Outpatient

Reporter: Unreported

Claim Insights

With respect to any medical malpractice payment, there are three major components of any claim. First, there is the act or omission that gave rise to an injury and whether the provider departed from an accepted standard of practice. Second, there is the nature of the injury itself, which includes several factors like its severity, duration, the impact on the patient’s life, the age and general health of the patient, along with many other elements. Third, there needs to be a causal connection between the negligent act or omission by the provider and the injury itself. Even with a showing of negligence, a medical provider is not legally responsible for an outcome that was not caused by the negligence.

With this in mind, the Data Bank does have some information that can give context to the medical malpractice payments, including the patient’s age, gender, whether it was inpatient or outpatient care, the type of malpractice or medical mistake that was alleged, and the ultimate outcome to the patient.

The information has significant limitations, however, that everyone should keep in mind. For one thing, the information is usually self-reported by the healthcare provider and his or her representatives. When reviewing this information, you should consider whether the patient would have described his or her injury as “minor” or “temporary” or “emotional only.” Further, there are important aspects of any claim valuation that simply cannot work in a database. Flagrant negligence might be coded the same way as what could be described as a smaller error, and one would have no way of knowing from these data. But even with these limitations and even where some required information is missing from any particular report, each of the payment reports in the database have enough to provide some insightful information that can help evaluate medical malpractice claims going forward.

Provider History Includes a Licensure Report

A medical provider's malpractice history can be extremely insightful. A long history of malpractice claims and discipline can certainly affect whether a matter is resolved and for how much. One of the most important goals of the National Practitioner Data Bank is to track providers' disciplinary and malpractice payment history throughout interstate moves or new employment situations.

In addition to this particular malpractice payment, this provider has three other types of reports on record that are worth noting. First, this provider has a total of two malpractice payments in the database. To put this number in perspective, throughout over 200,000 payment records, approximately 55% of them are associated with providers with multiple payments. This provider's total of two malpractice payments is more than 62% of all providers in the database, which is limited to providers with malpractice payment history.

Second, the database reflects that this particular provider has a licensure report on record. These are more unusual among the providers for whom malpractice payments are recorded in the database - only about 15% of the providers with malpractice payments also have at least one licensure report as well.

Third, this provider has two exclusion reports on record. The Office of the Inspector General keeps a database on providers who are excluded from Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs. The provider in this matter has such a report associated with them in the database.

Provider Detail

Alerts 5

Texas

Professional Counselor

Age: Between 40 and 50 Years Old in 2002 When Allegations Arose

Education Completed: Between 2010 and 2020

Malpractice Payments 2
There are other payments in the database associated with this provider:
YearStateAmountAllegation
2012Texas$8,750Wrong or Misdiagnosis
Licensure Reports 1
Adverse actions by the state licensing board are reported to the NPDB. Some of these actions are public, but some are not. All adverse actions must be reported in this database, whether or not they are public.
Exclusion Reports 2
This report means a temporary or permanent barring from participation in a federal or state health-related program, e.g. Medicare and Medicaid, such that those entities will not reimburse the provider for services.
Payments

Similar Claims

Here are other claims involving an allegation of Wrong or Misdiagnosis and an outcome of what was described as an emotional injury to a patient between 10 and 20 years old.
YearStateAmountAllegation
2013Florida$32,500Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2013Texas$62,500Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2012Texas$8,750Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2009West Virginia$195,000Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2009Louisiana$22,500Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2009Maine$185,000Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2007Montana$72,500Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2004California$12,500Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2004California$37,500Wrong or Misdiagnosis
2004California$195,000Wrong or Misdiagnosis