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October 2023 Newsletter

Liability reform elevated to presidential debate state Earlier this month, one presidential candidate offered up a tried and true way to improve access to patient care while lowering costs for Americans — through medical liability reform. A Wall Street Journal...

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Insurers Pause to Take Pulse of Medical AI

  Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies may help reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes, but their use in health care raises liability concerns and questions around medical malpractice risks. Insurers are not yet restricting...

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Current Medical Liability Laws

 

Damage Caps For physicians $500,000 cap on non-economic damages per claimant with any one physician not responsible for more than $500,000. For nonpractitioners, $750,000 cap on non-economic damages. The cap increases to $1 million in non-economic damages for physicians if the negligence resulted in death or a permanent vegetative state or if the court finds that a manifest injustice would occur unless the non-economic damages cap was increased because the non-economic harm sustained by the patient was particularly severe and the defendant’s negligence caused a catastrophic injury to the patient. (2003)
Joint Liability Reform Yes. Defendants are responsible only for their proportionate share of negligence.
Collateral Source Reform Yes, and the court must reduce damages by the amounts paid to the claimant from collateral sources. If a right of subrogation exists, there is no reduction in damages. Benefits received by the government sources are not considered collateral benefits.
Attorney Fees Limited Patients receive 70% of the first $250,000 awarded and 90% of the remainder of the award. Attorneys will still get payment for court and witness expenses. (2004) Patients may waive contingency fee limits.
Periodic Payments Permitted Yes, for future economic awards exceeding $250,000, the court must order periodic payments at the request of any party unless the court determines that manifest injustice would result to any party.