Med Mal Blog from Robinson Group Strategic Communications, LLC

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Democrats' main bill does not address medical malpractice regulations: Health care fact check
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH - Aug 31, 2009
...But regulating malpractice lawsuits, also known as tort reform, is a politically contentious topic so there are no guarantees. Many of the current proposals address malpractice lawsuits...

Organized medicine aims to strengthen liability provisions in reform bill
American Medical News, Aug 31, 2009
...AMA continues to favor noneconomic damage caps. But the Association plans to press for other comprehensive measures to help cut down on defensive medicine practices...

Editorial: Why Democrats won't cross the trial lawyers
Washington Examiner, DC - Aug 31, 2009
...“The reason tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on. And that’s the plain and simple truth.” Put otherwise, trial lawyers have effectively bought themselves veto power....

Opinion - Alan S. Boyd, MD: After reform, docs can think, do less
The Tennessean, Nashville, TN - Aug 31, 2009
...Medical malpractice will be less of an aggravation. Congress isn't going to bite the hand that feeds it by reining in the tort lawyers, meaning we'll still be financially at risk...

Opinion - Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband: Sorting fact from fiction on health care
The Wall Street Journal, New York, NY - Aug 30, 2009
...Further, at the AMA convention in June 2009, the president proposed linking protection for physicians from malpractice lawsuits if they strictly adhered to government-sponsored treatment guidelines. We need tort reform, but this is misconceived and again clearly inserts the bureaucrat directly into clinical decision making...

Opinion - Lance Cooper: 'Tort reform' a clever distraction
The Augusta Chronicle, GA - Aug 29, 2009
...Taking away patients' constitutional right to seek justice in a fair court of law, when they have been injured through no fault of their own, does nothing to improve our health care system, nor does it increase patient safety. And it is, simply, un-American...

posted by Editor at 8:17 AM

Editorial: Reform without radicalism
The Augusta Chronicle, GA – Aug 28, 2009
… One of the biggest payoffs could come with tort reform. If health care professionals are protected from unreasonable and frivolous lawsuits, malpractice insurance premiums will come down and the number of unnecessary tests and procedures would also likely drop…

Editorial: Treat causes of health care woes, not just symptoms
The Franklin News Post, Rocky Mount, VA – Aug 28, 2009
… Pass tort reform legislation that would lower doctors' malpractice insurance costs…

Democrats avoid tort reform in healthcare debate
US News and World Report – Aug 27, 2009
… The issue is the cost of "defensive medicine"—basically, doctors ordering extra (and arguably unnecessary) tests to protect themselves from costly lawsuits. Data on the exact size of the problem are spotty, but it's big…

Opinion – Phil Solarz: Health Care bill is not about health care
Associated Newspapers of Michigan, Wayne, MI – Aug 27, 2009
… Another problem that would help alleviate rising costs is tort reform, the curbing or capping of frivolous lawsuit awards for medical malpractice, but the trial attorneys association don’t like this plan and spend millions on lobbyists fighting it…

posted by Editor at 9:40 AM

Bond raters warn that state's fiscal plan can't hinge on one-time cash infusions
The Morning Call, Allentown, PA - Aug 27, 2009
...Rendell said a downgrade in the Moody's Investors Service ''outlook'' for Pennsylvania illustrates how balancing the budget exclusively with one-time cash sources like the ''rainy day'' contingency fund and a medical malpractice fund surplus will only exacerbate the state's future financial problems...

Panel issues a caution on health care
Winston-Salem Journal, NC - Aug 27, 2009
...According to a study by two associate professors of economics at Stanford University, Daniel Kessler and Mark McClellan, the annual cost of defensive-medicine procedures in the United States could be as much as $178 billion -- or about $2,000 a year for the average family...

Editorial: Health care run by trial lawyers
The Washington Times, DC - Aug 27, 2009
...In state after state that has tried medical malpractice reform -- there are 25 in all -- costs have gone down, the number of doctors settling in the state has gone up, and patient services have improved...

Opinion - Richard Quint: Tort reform should come first
The Baxter Bulletin, Mountain Home, AR - Aug 27, 2009
...Those along with the ever-mounting frivolous lawsuits have made health care providers subject to ever mounting costs for malpractice insurance. Therefore, I think we should start with "tort reform" and closer monitoring of fraudulent claims...

No legal reform in health care proposals
West Virginia MetroNews Network, Charleston, WV - Aug 26, 2009
...Tort reforms are not part of the massive health care reform packages the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives will again take up next month on Capitol Hill...

posted by Editor at 9:22 AM

Opinion - Jay Hancock: Health care myths obscure the much tougher decisions
Baltimore Sun, MD - Aug 26, 2209
...First, the conservative myth. "Why is it ... in this grand health care debate we hear not a word about one of the worst sources of waste in American medicine: the insane cost and arbitrary rewards of our malpractice system?" ...

Opinion - Rick Taylor: 1,000 pages of undecipherable regulations not the answer
The Olympian, Olympia, WA - Aug 26, 2009
...If Congress really wants to put health insurance within the reach of everyone then they should address things that make it expensive. A simple law requiring the loser of a medical malpractice suit to pay the costs of the winner’s lawyers would be a great start...

Opinion - Reg Henry: Lawyers the death of health-care reform
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA - Aug 26, 2009
...It is also obvious that people who are really done a wrong as a result of medical malpractice -- perhaps involving one of those prescriptions written in Old Norse -- should be justly compensated. However, justly compensated shouldn't mean being enriched by a judicial lottery system that increases medical costs every time the lawyers spin the wheel...

Opinion - Vendie H. Hooks III, M.D.: Consider medical, social policy factors in debate
The Augusta Chronicle, GA - Aug 26, 2009
...The argument that the opposing view uses is that the awards in malpractice cases are minuscule in terms of the total of money spent on health care. That is a ridiculous argument...

Editorial: Prescription for health debate: respect, civility
The Bakersfield Californian, CA - Aug 25, 2009
...Opponents are overwhelmingly concerned about the perceived move toward socialized medicine, use of federal money to fund abortions, malpractice tort reform, rationing of care and the overall cost of the proposed bills. Expect many of the same topics tonight. Hope and pray the debate is tempered with respect and appreciation for civility...

posted by Editor at 6:54 AM

Editorial: 3 GOP health care ideas Obama would do well to embrace
USA Today - Aug 25, 2009
...Limiting outsized punitive-damage awards is one idea. Another is to set up medical courts or arbitration panels with the expertise necessary to weed out frivolous claims...

Competing ideas in the reform debate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GA - Aug 24, 2009
...A major cost-control measure in the bill is reforming medical malpractice litigation, which doctors say drives up costs, by establishing special health courts to hear cases, encouraging speedy resolution and limiting punitive damages...

Opinion - Robert L. Hale: Democracy, something we just don't have
Southwest News-Herald, Chicago, IL - Aug 24, 2009
...The increase in the cost and complexity of health care is due to three factors — the advent of Medicare, the explosion of malpractice litigation, and excessive time and cost imposed on pharmaceutical companies to bring medications to the U.S. marketplace...

posted by Editor at 7:29 AM

Overseas care saves cash
The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN (Associated Press) - Aug 24, 2009
...It can be difficult to sue an overseas provider in U.S. courts, said Nathan Cortez, a Southern Methodist University law school professor who studies medical tourism. And the average malpractice recovery in Thailand is about $3,000, roughly 1 percent of the U.S. average...

Two state courts, same ruling: Informed consent must include all options
American Medical News, Chicago, IL - Aug 24, 2009
...Separate high court rulings in Maryland and Wisconsin may impose greater liability risks on physicians who fail to tell patients about treatment options...

Opinion - Joseph Califano: Bending the curve means health care reform, not just sick care reform
Winona Daily News, Winona, MN - Aug 24, 2009
...To reduce unnecessary expensive diagnostic tests and treatments, enact tort reform. Today the cheapest malpractice insurance for a physician is the MRI, PET or CAT scan...

Opinion - Deepak Chopra: The medical myth of more is better
San Francisco Chronicle, CA - Aug 24, 2009
...Second, bring malpractice coverage and lawsuits into line with reality, since many medical tests are motivated by physicians protecting themselves rather than protecting the patient's health...

Opinion - Adam Brodsky: O's insurance scam
New York Post, NY - Aug 24, 2009
...Dropping state mandates for unnecessary benefits can also cut costs and broaden "choice." And, of course, the unmentioned elephant in the room: medical-malpractice tort relief...

Opinion - Gordon Robinson: Health care reform is essential; slowing it down is more so
Waco Tribune-Herald, TX - Aug 23, 2009
...Any legislation passed should include meaningful tort reform similar to what Texas passed in 2003, limiting the amount hospitals and doctors pay in cases involving medical malpractice. Doctors and hospitals pay far too much to protect themselves against lawsuits. It works in Texas — just ask the trial lawyers...

Editorial: Attorneys should pony up
Washington Times, DC - Aug 23, 2009
...If doctors, insurance companies, drug companies, small businesses and individuals who choose not to buy insurance all must contribute something to the cause of health care reform, so too should the lawyers who make out like bandits under today's system...

Opinion - Jack Markowitz: Educated liberal's take on health care exasperates
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA - Aug 23, 2009
..And if there's a consensus on one flaw that adds a unique bloat to our system, it's the abuse of medical malpractice lawsuits that inflate doctors' insurance costs and pile up the billions in "defensive medicine" costs via excessive testing...

Opinion - Bob Roper: Give health care users what they want
Columbia Daily Tribune, Columbia, MO - Aug 23, 2009
...Do something with respect to malpractice lawsuit reform. Doctors now overwhelmingly practice “defensive medicine” to lower the risk of being sued and to enhance the risk of prevailing if they are in fact sued...

Opinion - Robert Rock: We can drive costs down while improving health care system
Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY - Aug 23, 2009
...I believe there are seven things we can do: 1. Enact tort reform to reduce malpractice insurance costs...

Competing interests collide
Times-Herald Record, Middletown, NY - Aug 23, 2009
...any real reform, Schwalb said, would remove the financial incentive for expensive testing; for example, moving care providers to a straight salary rather than a fee-for-service system, and enacting tort reform that would limit malpractice suits...

Opinion - Richard Meehan: Shielding doctors makes malpractice issue worse
Norwich Bulletin, CT - Aug 22, 2009
...If malpractice litigation is truly the bugaboo that doctors claim, then open up peer review. Let the public decide, armed with all of the truth, not just what the insurance carriers chose to propagandize...

Health care reform silent on malpractice
The Buffalo News, NY - Aug 22, 2009
...Yet in the 1,000 pages of H.R. 3200, the main version of the health reform bill, medical malpractice reform remains the Great Unmentioned. That fact has repelled Republicans and others who maintain that reform will be incomplete and way too expensive without a cap on jury awards in malpractice cases...

posted by Editor at 9:54 AM

Editorial: 'Cooperatives' is just a new name for more unnecessary reform
Greenville News, SC - Aug 21, 2009
...For example, Congress should limit out-of-proportion jury awards in malpractice cases and thus drive down the cost of both malpractice insurance and so-called “defensive medicine.”...

Health information technology powers debate on national health care reform
Kansas City Business Journal, MO - Aug 21, 2009
...• In the future, proof that doctors have followed evidence-based protocols accessible through EMR systems may be considered grounds for avoiding or minimizing malpractice claims. This will reduce costs associated with “defensive medicine.”...

Opinion - Nicole Lucht: A German perspective on reform
Las Vegas Sun, NV - Aug 21, 2009
...Doctors are paid about a third less than their American counterparts, but they also pay far less in malpractice insurance...

Opinion - Ron Blackmon: Some math for Congress on health care
Watertown Daily Times, NY - Aug 21, 2009
...Do some calculations that will reduce malpractice insurance, get rid of frivolous lawsuits and set settlement limits. Of course, lawyers (90 percent of legislators) wouldn't like this, but it's the best way to improve efficiencies of the system...

Opinion - Patrick Appel: Tort reform won't fix healthcare?, ctd
The Atlantic, Washington, DC - Aug 20, 2009
...In Texas, the State legislature enacted drastic tort reform which basically made it extraordinarily difficult and expensive to file a medical malpractice case. They did so on the typical theory that it would reduce the cost of lawsuits and, thus, reduce insurance premiums for doctors...

posted by Editor at 8:33 AM

Health-care reform meetings mostly peaceful in Jacksonville
Times-Union, Jacksonville, FL - Aug 20, 2009
...Johnson said that tort reform comes down to a situation of doctors versus lawyers and most medical malpractice verdicts favor either the doctor or the lawyer but not the patient...

Opinion - Carlos Muhletaler: Medical liability should be part of any reform
Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, FL - Aug 20, 2009
...Today, 10 cents of every dollar spent on health care is driven by medical liability, according to Price Waterhouse Coopers. Health care providers across the country are forced to practice "defensive medicine," ordering unnecessary and expensive tests and procedures to avoid being sued...

Opinion - Dan Page: Health Care: A clash of expectations
The State Journal, Charleston, WV - Aug 20, 2009
...4. Cap pain and suffering and punitive damage awards in medical malpractice cases...

Opinion - Russ Neal: Health care - do it right or not at all
Paradise Post, Paradise, CA - Aug 20, 2009
...Put generous caps on jury awards, and be quick to pull licenses from doctors who are obviously incompetent to get them out of the system...

Buffett sits in on Neb. health care reform meeting
Patriot-News, Harrisburg, PA (Associated Press) - Aug 19, 2009
...Berkshire Hathaway, generates about half its revenue from insurance businesses, although most don't deal in health insurance. One subsidiary, Medical Protective Co., does sell medical malpractice insurance.

Opinion - Hunter Baker: Imagine you are a doctor
The American Spectator, Arlington, VA - Aug 19, 2009
...The existence of the malpractice bar has changed the way you practice medicine. You have to raise prices to pay for expensive malpractice insurance. You're induced to order excessive tests to defend against the accusations of a litigator...

MICRA survives yet another challenge
Cortlandt Forum - Aug 19, 2009
...The California Supreme Court's decision will likely lead to a showdown in the state legislature. There are currently ongoing battles to raise or repeal medical malpractice caps in several states, including Nevada, Colorado, and Tennessee.

posted by Editor at 7:48 AM

Opinion - Lance Cooper: Lawsuits aren't the problem
Savannah Morning News, GA - Aug 19, 2009
...Supporters of tort reform argue that the threat of lawsuits makes doctors order unnecessary tests to protect themselves - a phenomenon they call defensive medicine -a nd yet there is no evidence to support those claims...

Opinion - Daphne Eviatar: Tort reform unlikely to cut health care costs
The Washington Independent, Washington, DC - Aug 19, 2009
...Amid the obstructionists’ claims that health care reform is “socialist” or a means of speeding Grandma towards her deathbed, a large focus of the conservative position on health care reform has been that frivolous lawsuits drive up health care costs and require doctors to practice “defensive medicine” that’s costly and wasteful...

Opinion - Bob Beckel: Dems' ace in the hole on health care: Tort reform
RealClearPolitics, Chicago, IL - Aug 18, 2009
...We Democrats have benefited mightily from the trial lawyers support and vice versa, but its time for these boys and girls to put some skin in the healthcare reform game and accept caps on pain and suffering malpractice awards...

Health care reform may prove costly
MSN Money (bizjournals.com) - Aug 18, 2009
...without some type of reform, health care costs, already 17 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, will continue to climb at an unsustainable rate, Schrader said...

Editorial: End health care chaos
The Buffalo News, Buffalo, NY - Aug 18, 2009
...Tort reform -- changing medical malpractice litigation -- also could save hundreds of billions by eliminating "cover your backside" testing and allowing doctors to practice and prescribe according to their own training and judgment, not to mention curtailing the costs of physician insurance that in turn also escalates health costs...

NH court sets date for malpractice arguments
Union Leader, Manchester, NH (Associated Press) - Aug 18, 2009
...The New Hampshire Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments on Oct. 15 in a dispute between the state and medical providers over $110 million in a malpractice fund...

posted by Editor at 8:08 AM

Editorial: Cure for what ails U.S.: Obama health plan fails to deal with rising costs
New York Daily News, NY - Aug 18, 2009
...Three, free doctors from excessive malpractice suits. Extra costs from defensive medicine have inflated expenses 18%...

Editorial: Questions, challenge on health-care reform
Hickory Daily Record, Hickory, NC - Aug 18, 2009
...So we ask, if the insurance carrier deems a doctor's orders are unnecessary and without foundation, can the physician be sued for malpractice? The answer, of course, is no. But nobody seems to be able to resolve this conundrum...

Opinion - Peter Morici: Obama's troubles with health care
Statesman Journal, Salem, OR - Aug 18, 2009
...Health care costs at least 50 percent more in the United States than in Canada and Western Europe, because of expensive malpractice suits, inefficient insurance company bureaucracies, comical inefficiencies and dangerously low standards at many hospitals, and doctor fees and drug prices much higher than abroad...

Opinion - James B. Dolan, MD: FMA opposes House health care reform bill
Herald Tribune, Sarasota, FL - Aug 18, 2009
...Medical liability reform, which is not included in HR 3200, is absolutely essential to cost containment. Numerous studies have shown that effective medical liability reform will significantly lower health care costs ...

Liberals complain over Obama concession
The Associated Press - Aug. 17, 2009
...He called for concentrating on other areas, including curbs on medical liability lawsuits, wellness programs and a tax break to help everyone afford coverage...

Opinion - James H. "Smokey" Shott: Don't dismantle the nation's current health care system -- fix it
Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV - Aug 17, 2009
...Medical liability reform will reduce or eliminate defensive medicine practices that add so much to the cost of medical care, and also increases the price of medical malpractice insurance...

Opinion - Jeremy Lukens: Healthcare reform that would actually work
Examiner.com - Aug 17, 2009
...there is one more thing that would drastically reduce the cost of healthcare: tort reform. It’s kind of a dirty word on Capitol Hill, but it’s absolutely necessary if anyone is truly serious about reform...

posted by Editor at 8:29 AM

Physicians stop states from raiding liability funds
American Medical News, Chicago, IL - Aug 17, 2009
New Hampshire and Pennsylvania physicians won separate court rulings against state authorities looking to tap into state-created medical liability funds to solve budget shortfalls...

Guest editorial (The Keene Sentinel): Are these really NH advantages?
Nashua Telegraph, Hudson, NH - Aug 17, 2009
...On another front, the state’s decision to balance the biennial budget with $110 million from a health-care providers’ medical malpractice fund has been bluntly rejected in Superior Court...

Key legislator: U.S. needs mandatory public reporting of medical errors
The Advocate, Stamford, CT - Aug 17, 2009
Mandatory national reporting of medical errors should be a top priority in Congress, said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, a key subcommittee chairman who helped write the current healthcare reform legislation...

States shed reinsurance and 'run naked' through storm risks
New York Times, NY - Aug 17, 2009
...Critics warn that Texas, and perhaps other states, is following in the path of Florida. Residents there are paying fees, also called assessments, on every type of insurance policy except workers' compensation and medical malpractice from past hurricanes...

Opinion - Douglas Turner: Angry citizens protest government run amok
The Buffalo News, Buffalo, NY - Aug 17, 2009
...What else but conceit would prompt Democratic leaders to propose end-of-life counseling in their health care bill but completely ignore the pressing issue of lawsuit, tort reform and doctors’ soaring malpractice insurance premiums?...

Opinion - Howard Smith: ObamaCare of Limbaugh - why are Americans irate?
The Examiner, DC - Aug 17, 2009
...HR 3200 created new hunting grounds for malpractice lawyers. Although traditionally having lower liability exposure, now, with their expanded gatekeeper role, primary care physicians will be on the front lines. This bill was a malpractice attorney’s dream come true...

Transcript: Blue ribbon panel on health care
Fox News Sunday - Aug 17, 2009
...You mentioned malpractice reform. I think that has to be part of any real reform. I do believe that letting small businesses access an individual — access something like an insurance exchange to bring down the rates — that would help...

Editorial: First, let's agree there's a problem
Observer-Reporter, Washington, PA - Aug 16, 2009
...Doctors charge exorbitant fees and order unnecessary and costly tests because they must pay enormous premiums for malpractice insurance and protect themselves against lawsuits...

Opinion - Dan Linssen: Sooner or later, we'll pay for care
Green Bay Press-Gazette, WI - Aug 16, 2009
...Second, litigation and liability costs for health-care providers have soared. To address this cost factor we must answer a fundamental question: Do we want the right to collect enormous sums from medical malpractice lawsuits or do we want to keep health-care premiums down? ...

Opinion - Dan K. Thomasson: Begin reform with the insurers
Washington Times, Washington, DC - Aug 16, 2009
...These premiums, if my doctor and lawyer friends are correct, are assessed even though, as one lawyer explained, "only an insane lawyer takes on a malpractice suit against a doctor that isn't 99 percent provable, and there aren't many of those." ...

AMA defends support of healthcare bill
The Hill, Washington, DC - Aug 15, 2009
...Even though congressional Democrats oppose one of the AMA’s other big priorities – caps on malpractice lawsuit damages – getting a new Medicare payment formula enacted would be a major victory for the group...

Opinion - Wirick: Improving liability costs crucial to health care reform
Patriot-News, Harrisburg, PA - Aug 15, 2009
..The president of the Pennsylvania Neurosurgical Society addressed that issue in a letter he sent recently to Pennsylvania's U.S. senators and congressional representatives, which included ways to make the medical liability system more economically efficient...

posted by Editor at 9:36 AM

Opinion - Bryce Dixon: Reducing bills would eliminate the ambulance chasers
The Spectrum, St. George, UT - Aug 14, 2009
... Let's abolish all malpractice claims in the United States for at least 10 years. At the end of the 10 years, I think we will still have a health care crisis but we won't be able to blame lawyers any more. Then we might be ready to address how to efficiently provide for the health of every American...

Opinion - Dan K. Thomasson: First, reform the insurers
The Daily News Tribune, Waltham, MA - Aug 14, 2009
...nothing can be accomplished either in stemming the runaway costs or improving the level of care without a thorough overhaul of the insurance industry. This should come from several different directions, not the least of which is to attack the root cause of defensive medicine, including the exorbitant medical malpractice premiums...

Malpractice law survives Supreme Court Challenge
The Sacramento Bee, CA - Aug 13, 2009
...The court refused to hear an appeal from a 5th District Court of Appeal ruling that the 1975 law, known as MICRA, does not violate state and federal constitutional guarantees, as plaintiff James Van Buren alleged in a case from Merced County...

Defendent can't argue unnecessary treatment
Wisconsin Law Journal, Milwaukee, WI - Aug 13, 2009
...Given the purpose of the legislation —reigning in medical malpractice claims — the court found recognizing unenumerated third-party claims would be contrary to the legislation’s purpose...

Opinion - Christopher Meek: Himes and health care
The Advocate, Stamford, CT - Aug 13, 2009
...According to an article in the Boston Globe from June 1, 2005: "malpractice insurance premiums have skyrocketed since 2000, jumping 20 to 25 percent in 2002 alone." The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has named nine "Red Alert" states where the medical liability insurance situation threatens the availability of physicians to deliver babies...

posted by Editor at 9:34 AM

Health care overhaul: Physicians urged to speak out on health-care reform
Las Vegas Review Journal, NV - Aug 13, 2009
...I want medical malpractice reform, with caps on all damages, so that we can practice without the fear of needless and unwarranted lawsuits that only benefit attorneys." ...

Opinion - Gov. Rick Perry: Tort reform must be part of health care reform
The Washington DC Examiner, DC - Aug 13, 2009
...Changes were seen immediately, and continue to be felt. All major liability insurers cut their rates upon passage of our reforms, with most of those cuts ranging in the double-digits. More than 10 new insurance carriers entered the Texas market, increasing competition and further lowering costs...

Opinion - Gov. Haley Barbour: Obamacare is going too far, too soon, too fast and costing too much
The Washington DC Examiner, DC - Aug 13, 2009
...In Mississippi we passed comprehensive tort reform in 2004, partially to stop lawsuit abuse in the area of medical liability. It worked. Medical liability insurance costs are down 42 percent, and doctors have received an average rebate of 20 percent of their annual paid premium...

Opinion - Peter Morici: Health care reform and the divine right of kings
Stateman Journal, Salem, OR - Aug 13, 2009
...The U.S. system is burdened by huge malpractice costs, and by excessively expensive administration imposed by private health insurance companies that pay lavish executive salaries. Malpractice lawyers are well positioned within the Democratic Party, and early on, President Obama gave them a pass...

Opinion - Lauren Steffy: For doctors, a little sunshine could be the best disinfectant
Herald Tribune, Sarasota, FL - Aug 13, 2009
...The limits on medical malpractice suits have reduced frivolous claims and lowered insurance rates, but having given up our access to the courts, we at least should be entitled to a public vetting of errors...

N.Y. extends med mal rate freeze
National Underwriter Property and Casualty Insurance News, Hoboken, NJ - Aug 12, 2009
...Medical malpractice writers in the state have frequently cited the state’s challenging legal environment coupled with rates that have been kept artificially low by regulators as a major problem. Medical professionals contend that medical malpractice insurance is too expensive, even with rates at their current suppressed levels...

posted by Editor at 8:55 AM

Headed to a health care 'town brawl?' Read this first
Idaho Stateman, Boise, ID - Aug 12, 2009
...And three, if the government uses the comparative research results to establish best practice guidelines, then doctors who don’t follow the guidelines but rather consider the individual needs of their patients, could be liable for malpractice claims…. the last two arguments fall apart on close scrutiny...

Protestor calls 'Patients First' group 'a front'
INFORUM, Fargo, ND - Aug 12, 2009
...Later Paulik said health reform legislation moving through Congress doesn’t do anything to address the need for tort reform, including medical malpractice insurance, which she said costs $256 billion...

Opinion - Steven Pearlstein: Behold, a national and rational conversation on health care
The Washington Post, DC - Aug 12, 2009
...Yes, the fear of malpractice suits causes many doctors to practice defensive medicine, but its impact on the cost of care is greatly exaggerated. Krauthammer, like many malpractice critics, relies on an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that is based primarily on a survey of doctors in Massachusetts...

State challenged on speedy malpractice fund appeal
WMUR, Manchester, NH (Associated Press) - Aug 11, 2009
...A group of medical providers is challenging New Hampshire's request for a speedy appeals process in a dispute over a malpractice fund....

Opinion - Rohn Robbins: Vail Law: More thoughts on torts and tort reform
Vail Daily, CO - Aug 11, 2009
...My antagonist, however, failed to tell me what dog she had in the fight of tort reform and violated the first precept of conscientious debate — telling the other party where you sit before you tell them where you stand...

posted by Editor at 8:40 AM

Malpractice insurance freeze extended
Times Union, Albany, NY (Associated Press) - Aug 11, 2009
Gov. David Paterson has signed legislation to freeze medical malpractice insurance rates in New York for another year. But the doctor who heads the largest insurer in New York says it simply leaves them financially weaker while efforts to resolve malpractice issues have stalled...

Opinion - Mitch McConnell: Lessons from 'clunkers' program
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY - Aug 11, 2009
...Junk lawsuits on doctors and hospitals drive up health care costs and limit access to care in many places, including Kentucky, by forcing these providers, in many cases, to limit the care they provide. Placing reasonable limits on medical-liability lawsuits can lower costs...

Opinion - J. Michael Sharman: Offering a simple solution to the malpractice problem
Star-Exponent, Culpeper, VA - Aug 11, 2009
...There is no reason why we can’t use the same doctor-pleasing, patient-friendly solution to end medical malpractice litigation and reduce our health care costs.

MICRA caps could head to Calif. high court
KCRA Radio, Sacramento, CA - Aug 10, 2009
...A recent challenge to the state law that caps some damages was struck down in a state appeals court. But the issue may be headed to the state's high court next...

Most expensive places for health care
Forbes - Aug 10, 2009
...Between 2000 and 2004, Florida insurance companies reported closing more than 8,500 medical malpractice claims against any health care provider, the highest among states with comprehensive databases...

posted by Editor at 6:39 AM

Pocono People: Steve Cunningham
Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, PA - Aug 10, 2009
...P.R.: Do malpractice insurance premiums continue to affect your ability to recruit doctors to the area? S.C.: Yes. I don't think there's been a significant change, although one of the things we've seen is a trend towards hospitals and health systems employing doctors...

Health reform bill awaiting House return retools public plan to encourage doctor participation
American Medical News, Chicago, IL - Aug 10, 2009
...While the final Energy and Commerce version does not include the damage caps sought by physicians, it does include new language providing financial incentives to states to implement alternative liability structures, such as early-offer and certificate-of-merit programs...

Wis. high court maintains limits on awards to third parties
American Medical News, Chicago, IL - Aug 10, 2009
...Wisconsin physicians support a recent state Supreme Court decision they say will help keep medical liability premiums affordable and allow them to provide care to patients...

Madison loses judicial 'hell hole' title but still needs work on asbestos filings, group says
The Madison/St. Clair Record, Edwardsville, IL - Aug 10, 2009
...For example, medical malpractice suits, according to the presentation, dropped from a decade high 61 in 2001 to 17 filed up to June 30 of this year...

Editorial: Health care reform can pass if Obama accepts reality
The Examiner, Washington, DC - Aug 10, 2009
...and caps on medical malpractice suits would put an end to “defensive medicine” whereby doctors order unnecessary tests and procedures to protect themselves against predatory trial lawyers....

Opinion - Archie C. Swindell, PhD: 'Wedge' issue proves divisive
The Day, New London, CT - Aug 10, 2009
...Why does the Democratic plan not propose controlling this problem? Other countries successfully use neutral arbitration panels rather than courts of law to adjudicate malpractice. Hundred-million-dollar jackpots do not occur, yet malpractice is dealt with - fairly...

Opinion - Glen Meakem: A path to success
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA - Aug 9, 2009
..Third, the cost of government-provided medical care should be brought under control. Most importantly, Obama should do the truly hard thing and cap punitive damage awards from medical malpractice lawsuits...

Opinion - Richard Meehan: Damage cap only would protect negligent doctors
Norwich Bulletin, Norwich, CT - Aug 9, 2009
...Doctors argue high malpractice insurance is directly related to excessive jury verdicts and legal costs. Part of their sleight of hand is mixing the question of caps on damages with the prevention of frivolous lawsuits. If a claim is truly frivolous, there is no excessive award...

AMA pushes freedom for physicians
The Denver Post, CO - Aug 8, 2009
...Included in the national reform proposal is a new requirement that patients would have to prove the merit of their case before filing a lawsuit against a doctor. Another idea is to first allow a doctor to fix the problem before a malpractice lawsuit is filed...

Editorial: Trial lawyers v. America
The Madison/St. Clair Record, Edwardsville, IL - Aug 8, 2009
...the American Association for Justice has no problem supporting the nationalization of one-seventh of the economy, the biggest government takeover of private enterprise in the history of our country. But any effort -- however feeble -- to attack the problem of lawsuit abuse and thereby limit the earning potential of big bucks attorneys, that's verboten...

Opinion - Stewart Eisenberg: Malpractice payments have fallen dramatically
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA - Aug 8, 2009
...Insurance companies and health-care special interests who have been reaping huge profits would like you to believe that we need tort reform. What we need is affordable health care for Americans and a plan to reduce preventable medical errors...

Opinion - Paul Greenburg: They are the villains of health care
Sun Journal, New Bern, NC - Aug 7, 2009
...Will this country’s great big new health-care system get all those lawyers off our doctor’s back, and just let the country’s physicians practice medicine? Instead of having to practice it defensively? Is there anything in this developing thousand-page mass of rules and regs that will lower the medical malpractice premiums that keep driving up the cost of health-care?...

posted by Editor at 9:29 AM

Editorial: N.H. is becoming a failed state
Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, NH - Aug 7, 2009
...Judge McGuire's ruling last week determined the state's claim to the malpractice fund is unconstitutional — that the policyholders have a contractual right to the money. Her reasoning makes sense...

Opinion - Uwe E. Reinhardt: Lost in the shuffle: The overarching goals of health reform
New York Times, NY - Aug 7, 2009
...part of the infrastructure reform must be a move away from resolving disputes over alleged professional malpractice through the tort system toward alternative forms of dispute resolution that separate the compensation of injured patents from the question of professional misconduct...

Opinion - Gretchen Randall: Democrats should address malpractice insurance costs
Sun Journal, Lewiston, ME - Aug 7, 2009
...This epidemic of physician's flight has been triggered by a juggernaught of class-action lawsuits filed by some of the nation's wealthiest personal injury lawyers - often on behalf of "victims" who show no signs of illness. In many states, the annual medical malpractice insurance premium paid by doctors now exceeds $120,000...

Opinion - Charles Krauthammer: Attack health care inefficiences first
Lawrence Journal-World, Lawrence, KS - Aug 7, 2009
...What to do? Abolish the entire medical-malpractice system. Create a social pool from which people injured in medical errors or accidents can draw. The adjudication would be done by medical experts, not lay juries giving away lottery prizes at the behest of the liquid-tongued John Edwardses who pocket a third of the proceeds...

posted by Editor at 7:14 AM

N.H. appeals a ruling denying malpractice fund's surplus claim
SeacoastOnline.com, Portsmouth, NH (Associated Press) - Aug 6. 2009
...New Hampshire has appealed a lower court ruling denying its claim to a $110 million surplus in a fund that underwrites malpractice insurance. But legislative leaders insisted Wednesday the fight over access to the funds would not create a budget crisis...

Doctors and state ready for Round 2
Concord Monitor, Concord, NH - Aug 6, 2009
...The attorney general's office asked the court to expedite proceedings in the state's case against doctors insured by the New Hampshire Joint Underwriting Association, writing in a court filing that the Legislature will need time to weigh alternative budget solutions...

Many prefer the JUA over other options
Concord Monitor, Concord, NH - Aug 6, 2009
..."Once you go through a failure of an insurance company like PHICO, which up until almost two months before they failed everyone said was fine - and then they fail and leave you hanging - it's a terrible place to be," Buchanan said. "With the JUA, it doesn't seem like a worry."...

Skeleton budget will pay state workers
Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, PA - Aug 6, 2009
...In addition to the $24 billion in state funds for fiscal 2009-10, the state expects about $2.4 billion in federal stimulus funds and an undetermined amount of revenue from sources such as the $750 million Rainy Day Fund, a $700 million surplus in a fund that pays for doctors' malpractice premiums, a delay in phasing out a tax on businesses' assets...

Editorial: Tax cut for trial lawyers
Washington Times, DC - Aug 6, 2009
...But when it comes to sharing in the cost of health care reform, the lawyers are off-limits. President Obama is against capping malpractice awards to reflect actual damage done to patients. He is against doing away with strict liability rules, which means doctors or medical companies still can be held liable for a bad outcome even if they do not create the problem...

Opinion - Louis Vitale: Health care reform -- fact or fantasy?
The Macon County News, Franklin, NC - Aug 6, 2009
...What about all those lawyers suing negligence doctors and driving up medical costs? Texas which has practically eliminated medical malpractice suits has some of the highest medical costs in the country...

Opinion: Philip K. Howard: Health reform's taboo topic
Yonkers Tribune, NY - Aug 5, 2009
...the congressional leadership has slammed the door on solutions to the one driver of waste that is relatively easy to fix: the erratic, expensive and time-consuming jury-by-jury malpractice system. Pilot projects could test whether this system should be replaced with expert health courts, but leaders who say they want to cut costs will not even consider them...

posted by Editor at 7:23 AM

South Dakota changes medical malpractice claims reporting requirements
Claims Journal, CA - Aug 5, 2009
...The law now requires each medical malpractice insurer to file reports of all claims made against any of its insureds not less than semiannually...

Retired state workers suing over insurance
Nashua Telegraph, Hudson, NH - Aug 5, 2009
...Doctors and health-care providers convinced a superior court judge last week to rule illegal the state's taking of $110 million from the surplus of a quasi-public group that underwrites medical malpractice and liability insurance...

Opinion - Charles Arlinghaus: A $110 million budget hole is no cause for panic
Union Leader, Manchester, NH - Aug 5, 2009
..As predicted, the state was prevented from seizing medical malpractice money that doesn't belong to it. The result is that $110 million of revenue used to balance the budget that just ended and the one going forward is no longer available. The state is appealing, but no one in Concord realistically thinks the state has any hope in this case...

Editorial: Raiding nonprofits: State needs to clarify
Union Leader, Manchester, NH - Aug 5, 2009
...legal precedent is legal precedent. If the court validates the argument that the organization's nonprofit status was one justifiable reason for the state to take its cash, that would give legislators cover for expanding such raids in the future...

Opinion - Paul Greenberg: The villains of health care
Hartford Courant, Hartford CT - Aug 4, 2009
...Another question: Will this country's great big new health-care system get all those lawyers off our doctor's back, and just let the country's physicians practice medicine? Instead of having to practice it defensively? Is there anything in this developing thousand-page mass of rules and regs that will lower the medical malpractice premiums that keep driving up the cost of health-care?...

Opinion - Rohn Robbins: What is a 'tort' and how do we reform one?
Vail Daily, Vail, CO - Aug 4, 2009
...Despite the questionable claim — tort litigation, in fact, amounts to less than one-half of 1 percent of health care spending — and despite the questionable origins of the tort reform movement — begun as an internal project of the Phillip Morris tobacco company and quickly joined in by others in the tobacco and asbestos industries — one should at least understand the term...

posted by Editor at 6:27 AM

Lynch's N.H. budget plan contested
The Dartmouth, Hanover, NH - Aug 4, 2009
...Part of the budget’s revenue would come from the surplus of the Joint Underwriting Association, a state-funded organization that provides malpractice insurance to state doctors. The JUA filed a lawsuit against the state to keep its funds, and the Belknap County Superior Court ruled against the state on Wednesday...

The role of telehealth in medical tourism
Medical Tourism Magazine, West Palm Beach, FL - Aug 4, 2009
...Since telehealth is relatively new, policies regarding inter-country telehealth practice are not well developed and the legal environment must be assessed on a country-by country basis. Many malpractice insurance providers will extend their coverage to care provided via telehealth, sometimes with a telehealth rider...

Albany takes a look at medical malpractice
Crain's New York Business, New York, NY - Aug 3, 2009
As a one-year New York state moratorium on medical malpractice insurance rate hikes enters its second month, reformers are hoping the state Legislature will come up with ways to lower such costs permanently...

Opinion - Brad Stephan: Midlands Voices: Main ingredients for health reform
The Omaha World-Herald, NE - Aug 3, 2009
...To solve the “malpractice crisis,” physicians could be held harmless from civil liability when they correctly perform the appropriate guidelines, even in the case of an untoward outcome...

Opinion - Tom Baker, Professor of Law - "Source Sheet"
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA - Aug 3, 2009
...The answer for doctors worried about their premiums is shifting the responsibility for buying malpractice insurance to hospitals and other large medical institutions. Evidence-based liability reform would give these institutions the incentive they need to cut back on the most wasteful aspect of American health care: preventable medical injuries.”...

posted by Editor at 6:24 AM

NY regs encourage med mal suits?
Crain's New York Business, New York, NY - Aug 3, 2009
...One way to limit the number of malpractice suits in New York is to make its regulations match those of other states, says a consultant. New York is one of only 13 states that allow lawsuits to proceed regardless of the degree to which physician negligence allegedly caused a patient’s injury...

Litigation screening panels on trial
American Medical News, Chicago, IL - Aug 3, 3009
..Indiana is one of about 20 states using prelitigation review panels, which proponents tout as a way to temper medical liability costs by weeding out frivolous claims and encouraging early settlement of valid cases. The concept has faced resistance from critics who say it unnecessarily and unfairly drags out the legal process...

Opinion - Philip K. Howard: Medical tort reform could save billions
The News Journal, New Castle, DE - Aug 3, 2009
...one driver of waste that is relatively easy to fix: the erratic, expensive and time-consuming jury-by-jury malpractice system. Pilot projects could test whether this system should be replaced with expert health courts, but leaders who say they want to cut costs will not even consider them...

Editorial: Face it, Governor, you need a 'Plan B'
Concord Monitor, Concord, NH - Aug 3, 2009
...It's a shame that lawmakers a generation ago didn't show more wisdom when creating the malpractice fund. Instead of setting it up as a mutual fund, which pays dividends to members, they should have made it clear that any surplus would go to the state. Unfortunately, that's not what the law says...

Editorial: Where is Plan B? Lynch remains silent
Union Leader, Manchester, NH - Aug 3, 2009
...No one would be talking about these new taxes had Gov. John Lynch announced a Plan B in case his scheme to snatch that malpractice fund money failed. But to date we have heard no such offering from the governor's office. If he has a plan, he's keeping it a secret...

Editorial: Big budget gamble looking like a loser
Nashua Telegraph, NH - Aug 2, 2009
...The only card the state is holding is the tax-exempt status it has granted the JUA since its inception. While that tax exemption may not make the insurance program a state agency, it does give rise to the state’s claim on the program’s surplus...

Editorial: Court was right to keep state's hands of JUA funds
The Citizen, Laconia, NH - Aug 2, 2009
...The real problem here is not thievery. It is that the governor and a majority in the Legislature are trying to use this money for something quite different from that intended when the Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association was established in 1975...

Opinion - Dr. Robert E. Prichard: Incremental reforms best on health care
Gloucester County Times, NJ - Aug 2, 2009
...The fear of lawsuits has resulted in very high malpractice insurance premiums; many doctors leaving high risk fields such as obstetrics, anesthesiology, neurosurgery, and emergency medicine; and many doctors ordering unnecessary tests to cover themselves in case they are sued. I believe legislation could be passed within a year reducing the malpractice cost by at least $75 billion...

Opinion - Tim Semelroth: Limiting rights of injured patients is bogus
The Des Moines Register, IA - Aug 2, 2009
...There is no evidence that limiting the rights of injured patients will have a meaningful impact on the rising cost of health care, or the plight of the uninsured. As medical-industry lobbyists ride into Washington peddling the dubious remedy of medical negligence "reform," our elected representatives should recognize it for what it is - snake oil.

Opinion - Tim Ackarman: Fixing the health care mess (My Turn)
Globe Gazette, Mason City, IA - Jul 31, 2009
...Tort reform would further lower costs and increase revenue. Malpractice lawsuits would still be allowed, with injured patients recovering lost wages and medical expenses. Compensation for pain and suffering would be capped, while punitive damages would be awarded to the government to help fund Mediversal...

posted by Editor at 7:48 AM