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Comment by qingcharles | Hacker News Reader

OK, settled the case. Luckily my lawyer was working pro bono as he racked up over $600K in billable hours I understand. I'm waiting for an email back to see if I can discuss it or whether it is NDA'd lol. The judge said that she had never seen any institution so stubbornly against fixing what they were legally entitled to fix.

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"Defendant and Plaintiff further agree that if asked about the terms and contents of this Agreement, they will respond only by stating that “the matter has been resolved” or “I cannot comment” without any further elaboration."

They tried to insert this clause, but my lawyer had it excised.

Why lift a finger to do anything if you can just spend taxpayers' dollars on a settlement?

That's what the judge said. She said normally they'd either throw money at it, or fix the problem. In this case they were willing to do neither. Eventually got them to make a tiny policy change and a statement that they will uphold the change with retraining, and I got $3250.

Your lawyer made $600K and you got $3250?

No, the lawyer was working pro bono. 600k is what those hours would have cost.

This. He would have (probably) got the money if it had gone to trial and we had won.

if you think the whole "600k is what it would have cost" thing is crazy, then stay far away from our medical system! In medicine 600k is getting off easy

What is the billable rate? 1000 per hour?

Unironically yes. I remember going to the ER in a rural town in Texas when I was 18 and getting the bill for the doctor and it was $800/hr.

The hospitals hire many ER doctors as “contractors” so they can crank the rates up. But the doctor works for a conglomerate that rents them out to the hospital for a fixed salary and the conglomerate profits the spread.

I was in the ER with my wife for an asthma issue for about 90 minutes (no ambulance), and the bill after insurance was $1,750.

What happens if they don't?

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