Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Brockovich teams up with Tampa firm

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published December 21, 2006

A Tampa law firm that made millions of dollars suing nursing homes is pursuing a controversial new legal strategy using a big name plaintiff. So far, however, the results are less than promising.

Wilkes & McHugh, which won more than $200-million in nursing home neglect cases over the past 20 years, has teamed up with Erin Brockovich to accuse hospitals and a handful of nursing homes of overbilling Medicare.

The lawsuits, with Brockovich as plaintiff on 33 lawsuits in California and a Tampa Bay area resident on 16 lawsuits in Florida and three other states, claim that hospitals wrongly bill Medicare for treating injuries like malnutrition, bed sores and infections which occur during the patients' stay.

Brockovich, made famous in the 2000 movie starring Julia Roberts, said she was suing giant hospital chains because, "This is what I do. It would be as odd for me to turn down a cause as it would be for Julia Roberts to not do another movie."

But Brockovich's star power did little to sway the courts. By late November, all but one of the California cases had been dismissed.

Judges in Arkansas have also dismissed two cases that have Douglas B. Stalley, a longtime professional guardian in Hillsborough County, as plaintiff. The remaining Stalley cases, including four in Florida, are pending and include local defendants Morton Plant Mease Health Care in Clearwater and Delta Health Group, which operates a nursing home in Tampa.

Morton Plant Mease and Delta executives declined to comment on the allegations. Jim Wilkes, the high-profile lawyer who heads Wilkes & McHugh, also declined to return phone calls. In June, he told an Arkansas newspaper that his firm had been talking about taking action on Medicare payments for medical errors for two years. The lawsuits seek repayment for the treatments on behalf of taxpayers as well as double that amount in damages for the plaintiff and attorneys.

But Wilkes' broad brush attempt to make hospitals pay for medical errors has not been well-received by federal judges. In San Diego, the judge dismissed two cases saying Brockovich was not eligible for Medicare, had never been treated at the hospitals and was never injured by hospital misconduct.

Jesse Witten, an attorney with Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C., said even if the Wilkes' cases aren't dismissed, proving the cases will be difficult. "A judge would probably require the plaintiff to identify particular patients where medical errors occurred," said Witten, who represents hospitals. "Most courts won't let them go on a fishing expedition through people's medical records."

Even Stalley, who has been a plaintiff on more than 100 nursing home cases for Wilkes, said he was skeptical about the latest barrage of lawsuits to bear his name.

"These are totally different from our previous lawsuits, which were on behalf of a specific person or family," said Stalley, a 60-year-old former banker who described his share of earlier settlements as "not substantial."

"In these cases people are injured in a hospital, the family doesn't want to do anything about it and Medicare picks up those costs inappropriately," he said. "But it may be a tough nut to crack."

Information from wire stories and Times researcher Angie Holan was used in this report. Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2996.

Q&A

Since June, 49 lawsuits have been filed against hospital chains and a few nursing homes in five states, including Florida. Local defendants are Morton Plant Mease Health Care in Clearwater and Delta Health Group in Tampa.

Erin Brockovich is the plaintiff on 33 cases filed in California; Douglas B. Stalley of Lithia is plaintiff on 16 filed in Florida, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Lead attorney is the Tampa firm of Wilkes &McHugh.

In nearly identical filings nationwide, the plaintiffs claim that hospitals fraudulently receive Medicare payments to treat injuries that patients receive in the hospital. Saying the hospitals should cover such costs, the lawsuits demand double the amount due Medicare.

Federal court judges in California and Arkansas have dismissed more than 30 cases, saying the plaintiffs have no standing to bring the complaint. Many of those dismissals have been appealed. The remaining cases are pending.

Wilkes & McHugh P.A.

Started: 1985

Partners: Jim Wilkes and Tim McHugh

Staff: More than 60 attorneys

Headquarters: Tampa, with offices in 7 states

Notable verdicts: Earned more than $200-million in courtroom verdicts in nursing home abuse cases, including $32-million in May

Honors: Named among the Top 20 Plaintiffs' Firms in the country by the National Law Journal; Wilkes received Resident's Rights Award from the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform

[Last modified December 21, 2006, 09:27:21]