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June 9, 2016

Medical Debt Has a Long Overdue Moment on Center Stage

John Oliver made a big splash last weekend by highlighting the unsettling, and ridiculously lightly-regulated, world of medical debt collection, but a much longer and more serious story published a few days earlier by NPR adds significant depth to reporting on this undercovered issue.

The NPR piece (linked below) details how non-profit hospitals across the country have abused their tax-free status to pursue poor Americans in court. When discussions about universal health care take place in this country it is stories like these that we need to focus on: people who are driven into bankruptcy or who do not get the health care they need because they lack the money to pay outrageous medical bills. That these people are being hounded in court by institutions that also enjoy tax-free status is simply unconscionable.

A search at ProPublica, the public interest journalism website, yields tax filings for dozens of non-profit hospitals here in Oregon. As Oregon Public Broadcasting recently noted, that tax status is predicated on the idea that hospitals which are not in business to turn a profit will do substantial charity work and forgive medical debt whenever it is practical. Yet as OPB documents, between 2014 and 2015 the funds devoted to charitable health care dropped by more than a third here in Oregon, despite the fact that during this time period Obamacare was bringing many more low income patients into our state’s hospitals.

April 17, 2016

Rising Portland Pedestrian Deaths Become a Citywide Issue

by Matthew D. Kaplan

With pedestrian and bicyclist deaths on the rise here in Portland, something I wrote about earlier this month, safety questions are increasingly becoming part of our city’s political agenda. As The Oregonian noted in a recent article, 2016’s “year-to-date death toll is nearly twice the seven fatalities recorded during the same period last year.” As a result, attention around this issue is increasing.

It is especially noteworthy that eight of this year’s 13 fatal crashes involving a cyclist or a pedestrian have happened in East Portland neighborhoods, according to a Portland Bureau of Transportation official quoted by the paper. At a time when the city is trying to implement the “Vision Zero” program, which aspires to eliminate pedestrian deaths on Portland’s streets by 2025, the rise in fatalities is especially unwelcome. With luck it will also serve as a spur to action.

According to the newspaper, city officials have plans to install many more flashing yellow lights at crosswalks, particularly in East Portland, as part of the Vision Zero project. The city also plans to make alterations to curbs and median islands in an effort to make key crossings more pedestrian and bike-friendly. The paper reports that the city recently installed rapid-flash beacons – “devices that light up for drivers to see pedestrians, who, in turn, hear ‘yellow lights are flashing’ in English and Spanish” – in 16 locations around the city, building on a program that has brought 34 of these devices to East Portland alone since 2012.

February 29, 2016

Oregon Legislature Moves Forward Bill to Protect Children & Sexual Assault Victims

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last Friday the Oregon Senate unanimously approved “a bill aimed at ensuring that sexual assault evidence is submitted for lab testing in a timely manner and not left untouched on police evidence shelves,” according to a report in The Oregonian. The bill is named for a teenage Northeast Portland girl who was raped and murdered across the street from her home in 2001.

Melissa’s Bill, as it is known, focuses on untested sexual assault kits because of the discovery that “sexual assault kits from at least two other young teens raped by the girl’s killer four years earlier sat on the Portland Police Bureau’s evidence shelves” and were not tested until a connection was drawn between them and the 2001 case. According to the newspaper the girl’s parents hoped that their child’s death would at least lead to a change in police procedures, and to more timely testing of rape and assault kits. When a newspaper investigation revealed that despite the passage of more than a decade little had changed Melissa’s parents went to the legislature.

As described by the paper the bill will require that, beginning next January 1, “each police agency in Oregon shall adopt written policies and procedures concerning the collection, submission for testing and retention of the kits. Under the bill police must pick up the kits within seven days after a hospital alerts them about a kit’s existence and submit them to the state crime lab for testing within 14 days of receipt. All kits must be stored for 60 years.”

February 21, 2016

Warning About Portland Glass Factories Raises Industrial Accident Concerns

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A recent announcement that two Portland glass factories may have contaminated their surrounding area is a pointed reminder of how Oregon industrial accidents need not be dramatic and violent. Sometimes a problem can develop slowly over time and be just as potentially deadly.

According to a recent article in The Oregonian, state public health officials warned earlier this month that “vegetables grown close to Bullseye Glass in Southeast Portland and Uroboros Glass in North Portland could contain harmful levels of chromium, arsenic and cadmium. They asked physicians to advise patients not to eat them until more is known.” The advice extends to homes and gardens within a half-mile of both factories. The paper notes that state environmental officials are currently conducting tests in the area around both factories. These include both the collection of soil samples in the affected area and taking urine samples from people who live in the area.

The first priority is clearly the health of the people who live near these factories, but as the investigation moves forward officials can and should look closely at how the alleged contamination was able to happen in the first place. Distressingly, the newspaper reports that the test results will “only cover cancer cases over a five year period. The factories have been there for 40.” It is important that the investigation not stop there.

December 31, 2015

Start 2016 Safely

by Matthew D. Kaplan

As we count down the final hours of 2015 this is a good moment to remember the importance of celebrating safely. Yes, you read many warnings like this every year, but there is good reason for that. For all the effort that goes into education and prevention in the run-up to every December 31 the evening remains one of the most dangerous times of the year to be on the roads.

As noted by Eugene TV station KEZI, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has reported that fully one-third of traffic fatalities each year involve alcohol. Recognizing the dangers, and in an effort to curb Portland drunk driving, Tri-Met will again be offering free transportation tonight, starting at 8 pm.

As a number of media outlets have noted, New Years Eve traffic fatalities across the state have fallen in recent years. Indeed, two years ago there were no New Year’s traffic fatalities at all. Arrests, however, have steadily risen over the same period, indicating perhaps that if education has been less than a complete success enforcement, at least, goes a long way toward cutting down on accidents. Medford TV station KDRV is warning its viewers to expect “saturation patrols” tonight, and that advice can safely be said to apply throughout the state.

November 21, 2015

Injuries to Children May Fall Thanks to New Youth Soccer rules

by Matthew D. Kaplan

In an effort to reduce sports injuries to children the United States Soccer Federation “unveiled a series of safety initiatives aimed at addressing head injuries in the sport” earlier this month, according to a recent report in the New York Times.

The new regulations “will prohibit players 10 and younger from heading the ball and will reduce headers in practice for those from age 11 to 13,” the newspaper reports. More details of the policy are expected to be announced in the next month, but at a time of increased attention to concussions and other traumatic brain injuries throughout the sports world in general and among younger athletes particularly this announcement is a welcome development. As the newspaper notes, documents submitted as part of the case showed that “nearly 50,000 high school soccer players sustained concussions in 2010 – more players than in baseball, basketball, softball and wrestling combined.”

“The rules will be mandatory for US Soccer youth national teams and academies, including Major League Soccer youth club teams, but the rules will only be recommendations for other soccer associations and development programs that are not under US Soccer control,” the paper reports. Still, this action by the US’ important governing body for the sport is bound to have a ripple effect even in leagues where its rule-making does not directly apply.

October 29, 2015

Cyclist Traffic Death Yields Long Prison Sentence

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The criminal phase of a trial in Maryland of a former Bishop who struck and killed a bike rider while she was driving drunk is over, but the legal system may not be finished with the case. The driver, an Episcopalian Bishop at the time of the accident, “pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter, drunken driving and leaving the scene,” according to an Associated Press report posted on the ABC News website.

According to AP “her blood-alcohol was 0.22, and prosecutors said she was texting when she struck the 41-year-old cyclist… on December 27. The impact threw (him) onto (the car’s) hood and into the windshield of her car. He died of severe head trauma, leaving behind a wife and two young children.” The drunk driver left the scene of the accident for approximately 30 minutes, though she later returned, according to the AP.

Rarely does one see a case that raises so many legal issues in a single moment of irresponsibility: drunk driving, distracted driving, failing to share the road with cyclists, leaving the scene of an accident and, as a result of all that, a tragic fatality that may leave the driver open to a wrongful death action. Though the driver, who has been dismissed from her clerical position by the church, pled guilty, that acknowledgement of responsibility does little to ease the pain of the family she has torn apart. The AP quotes the victim’s sister-in-law describing the seven-year prison sentence (technically a 20-year sentence with all but seven years suspended by the judge) as “lukewarm.” It would also be interesting from a legal perspective to learn more about where the driver was drinking before the accident. Here in Oregon our Social Host and Dram Shop laws would place some liability for the accident on a host or a liquor store owner who served or sold the alcohol if the driver had appeared to be drunk at the time.

October 20, 2015

National Teen Driver Safety Week and the “5 to Drive”

by Matthew D. Kaplan

This is National Teen Driver Safety Week and to mark the occasion SafeKids, an organization I have long supported and helped promote, is doing all it can to publicize a set of simple, common sense, safety tips. Known as the “5 to Drive” the campaign aims to cut teen fatalities on our roads through simple, easy to remember, pointers:

Don’t drink and drive
Buckle Up. Every Trip.

October 15, 2015

Oregon Car Accident Deaths Are Rising

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The number of deaths statewide in Oregon car crashes has jumped by 31 percent over the last year – a worrying statistic that, according to The Oregonian, state officials are unsure how to explain.

A recent article in the newspaper reported that “in the year that ended September 23, the state tallied 312 traffic fatalities, up from 238 for the same time period the year before… Pedestrian deaths soared by 64 percent to 54.”

Exactly why this is happening is not clear. The newspaper reports that in presenting the figures to a state senate committee in Salem, officials from the Oregon Department of Transportation called the numbers “pretty sobering” and “said at the hearing that the usual factors – speeding, no seatbelts, drunken and distracted driving – had something to do with the increase, but (the officials) said they’re still looking for solutions.” The Oregonian quotes one ODOT official telling the committee: “There’s no single factor, which means there’s no silver bullet.”

June 19, 2015

Idaho Death is a Reminder of the Danger of Hot Cars this Summer

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The sad news last week that a three-year-old boy in Idaho was found dead in his family car is a timely and tragic reminder of something I highlight nearly every summer: the danger that sealed cars pose for small children.

According to the Associated Press the boy “apparently wandered outside and climbed into a hot car with two family dogs.” Both the boy and the pets died. The case is especially noteworthy because the news agency says local authorities investigating the case “believe the child headed out with the dogs and all three of them climbed into the car. The boy was not locked in the vehicle.” This is important because it reminds us that unlocked cars to which a child has access can be just as dangerous as cars in which a child has been locked by accident.

According to SafeKids, an organization I have long supported and promoted, child deaths in hot vehicles are a serious problem. “Heatstroke is the leading cause of non-crash, vehicle-related deaths for children,” the organization notes on its website (see link below). “On average, every 8 days a child dies from heatstroke in a vehicle.”