"Patient Care Supersedes Profits"

In April 1998, a San Diego jury awarded Thomas Self, M.D., a pediatrician, $ 1.7 million after finding that he was fired in a malicious fashion and that he had been defamed. As reported in Orlando Sentinel, Dr. Self sued the medical group for which he worked after he had been discharged. He contended that he was fired because he spent too much time with patients, ordered too many tests that did not generate profit, and refused to perform unnecessary surgeries. The jury agreed with Dr. Self.

The Sentinel noted that this was the first verdict of its kind in the country, setting an important precedent when Dr. Self successfully argued that the medical company's emphasis on the bottom line precluded doctors from providing good medical care. Many observers have suggested that this case sends a signal of the public's growing unease about the disproportionate balance between corporate profits and the medicine that is delivered to patients.

The basis of the Self suit was a 1993 California statute that prohibited medical groups and MCOs from retaliating against physicians for giving patients appropriate care. About half the states in the country have enacted similar laws. [Hall R., Psychiatric Practice & Managed Care, No. 5, September/October 1998, p. 5]