FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (2/21/05)
Contact: Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., President
American Pain Institute (API)
662-247-1471 662-247-3364
e-mail: MyersFound@aol.com
web sites: www.AmericanPainInstitute.org
www.MyersFoundation.net
NMA President to Visit Embattled Tchula Physician
Mississippi Physician Victim of Reverse Tort Reform
Rally at State Capitol to Protest Insurance Company
Attempts to Violate Poor Patients Medical Privacy Rights
(Tchula, Mississippi) - Baptist Medical Missionary and Family Practitioner, Rev. Ronald V.
Myers, Sr., M.D., has been without medical malpractice insurance since January 1st, resulting in the closure of several health centers that have been serving the
poorest counties in Mississippi for 17 years. Dr. Winston Price, President of the National Medical Association (NMA), representing the country's 25,000 African-American physicians,
will travel to Mississippi to assess the situation first hand.
The Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi (MACM), the state's only malpractice insurance carrier, decided not to renew his insurance policy because he would not allow them to review the medical records of thousands of his patients without their permission. Dr. Myers has never had a medical malpractice judgement or lawsuit in
17 years of practice in his Mississippi Delta health centers.
"I am a victim of a medical malpractice lynching because I protected the medical privacy rights of my mostly poor, African-American patients," states Dr. Myers. "The poor have a right to privacy of their medical information and what MACM did is morally reprehensible."
Dr. Myers, who was recently featured in People Magazine and ABC News Good Morning America, is concerned about how his situation demonstrates the "downside of tort reform"
in America.
"Tort reform is impacting negatively on health care to the poor, causing even greater health disparities to African-Americans, especially in counties that were targeted as "Judicial Hellholes" by the American Tort Reform Association," states Dr. Myers. "Insurance companies are telling the poor, chronic pain patients and the disenfranchised that, because of tort reform, we do not have to insure your doctors any longer."
The Mississippi legislature recently passed sweeping tort reform legislation that was supposed to keep physicians from shutting down their practices and leaving the state because of exuberant malpractice costs. Dr. Myers understands that he also a victim of "reverse tort reform" because he has practiced for so many years in poor counties.
"A strange thing happened on the way to tort reform in Mississippi," states Dr. Myers. "Malpractice insurance rates have not gone down and the poorest and medically neediest citizens are without health care."
Public gatherings with Dr. Price and Dr. Myers have been scheduled for Tuesday, March 1st, 12:00noon at the Myers Foundation Family Health Center of Tchula, 15548 Hwy. 49 East, Tchula, MS, at 2:00pm, at the Myers Foundation Family Health Center of Belzoni, 201 N. George Lee Avenue, in Belzoni, MS, and Wednesday, March 2nd, 12:00noon, on the steps of the south side of the State Capitol Building, in Jackson, MS.
For further information contact Dr. Myers at 662-247-1471, 662-247-3364, e-mail: MyersFound@aol.com, web sites: www.MyersFoundation.net, www.njclc.com, www.AmericanPainInstitute.org.
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Dear Friends and Supporters:
Thank you for all your phone calls, e-mails and letters concerning our atrocious and morally reprehensible medical malpractice plight in Mississippi that was covered in the revealing Jackson Advocate Newspaper story:
STATE TRYING TO STOP LOCAL DOCTOR'S MEDICAL MINISTRY
https://www.americanpaininstitute.org/newsI.htm
Many of you have asked me, "What can I do to help?"
Let me suggest the following:
- Please pray for our medical ministry
- Please write, call, fax, e-mail the Governor of Mississippi and the following key members of the Mississippi Legislature. The Select Committee on Medical Malpractice Insurance will be investigating the Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi (MACM) and their non-renewal of my malpractice insurance policy.
- Please speak out publicly and let the American Medical Association (AMA) know of your concerns about the actions of Dr. J. Edward Hill, President-Elect of the AMA and Board Member of MACM, to shut down our medical ministry to the poor. WE NEED A STRONG PUBLIC OUTCRY ACROSS AMERICA! HOW CAN MEMBERS OF THE AMA CONDONE THE UNJUST ACTIONS OF THEIR OWN LEADERSHIP!
- Please voice your concern to your members of congress and state legislators about how the insurance industry, that is advocating for tort reform because the high cost of medical malpractice insurance is forcing doctors out of business, is now forcing physicians who treat the poor and disenfranchised out of business because of greed. AGAIN, A STRONG PUBLIC OUTCRY IN DEFENSE OF PHYSICIANS, LIKE DR. MYERS, WHO TREAT PAIN PATIENTS AND THE POOREST PEOPLE IN AMERICA IS NEEDED!
PLEASE DON'T LET GREED WIN OVER NEED! POOR PEOPLE AND PAIN PATIENTS NEED HEALTHCARE TOO!
- Please make a DONATION to the Myers Foundation:
https://www.myersfoundation.net/donations/index.html
Governor Haley Barbour
State of Mississippi
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, MS 39205
601-359-3150 601-359-3741 Fax
George Dale
Insurance Commissioner
State of Mississippi
P.O. Box 79
Jackson, MS 39205
601-359-3569 601-359-2474 Fax
www.doi.state.ms.us
Rep. Edward Blackmon, Jr.
Co-Chairperson
Select Committee on Medical Malpractice Insurance
P.O. Drawer 105
Canton, MS 39046-0105
601-859-1567
eblackmon@mail.house.state.ms.us
Rep. Steve Holland
Co-Chairperson
Select Committee on Medical Malpractice Insurance
P.O. Box 2
Plantersville, MS 38862-0002
662-844-2004
State Senator Willie Simmons
P.O. Box 297
Cleveland, MS 39732
662-846-7433
wsimmons@mail.senate.state.ms.us
State Senator David Jordan
P.O. Box 8173
Greenwood, MS 38930
662-453-2246
djordan@mail.senate.state.ms.us
Dr. J. Edward Hill, President-Elect
American Medical Association
515 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60610
800-621-8335
https://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1891.html
Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi
404 W. Parkway Place
Ridgeland, MS 39157
601-605-4882
https://www.macm.net/ad_bod.htm
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