The following Case Study comes from Chapter 3 in your textbook:
A source of potential problems for health care practitioners is advertising. Buying print ads, creating radio spots, or sponsoring Web sites are commonplace activities for today’s health care practitioners, which may subject them to a different type of lawsuit. For example, two New Jersey patients sued their physician over the Web site ads she ran for LASIK eye surgery. The patients claimed the doctor made false or misleading statements in her ads, leading them to believe she would provide all of their treatment. Instead, the patients said a physician who was not fully licensed provided their follow-up care. (This practice is generally medically acceptable.) The two patients sued the physician under their state’s Consumer Fraud Act, an area of law from which physicians have traditionally been exempt. A trial court allowed the suit to proceed, but the state supreme court reversed that decision, preventing the patients from suing the physician for advertising fraud.
In your opinion, should health care practitioners be protected from consumer fraud suits over advertising? Explain your answer.
As a health care practitioner, would you advertise your services? Why or why not?
Albright, Tammy. Law and Ethics for Health Professions, McGraw-Hill US Higher Ed USE, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central