Protect Patients Now is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with the Health Coalition on Liability and Access, bringing together two of the most influential groups in the medical liability reform debate to ensure that this important issue is included in any comprehensive health care reform effort considered by the U.S. Congress.
The HCLA is a national coalition made up of organizations representing physicians, hospitals, health care insurers, businesses, producers of medicines and health care consumers, and is dedicated to enacting comprehensive federal medical liability reform.
“As Congress and the President tackle the monumental task of reforming our health care system, we must make sure that medical liability reform is included,” said DMLR Chair Stuart L. Weinstein, M.D. “The current system is not good for patients — it drives up health care costs, and drives good doctors out of the practice of medicine, leaving patients without care.”
“By working with the HCLA, we’re bringing together the key stakeholders in the debate to advance a coordinated approach to fixing our nation’s broken medical liability system. True health care reform is only possible when the medical liability system is addressed,” Weinstein said.
Protect Patients Now is looking forward to working with HCLA as health care reform legislation advances through Congress. For more information, visit www.hcla.org.
Let’s Be Serious
The New York Times reported this month that President Obama, while opposed to limits on non-economic damages, is apparently open to the idea of including provisions that rein in medical liability lawsuits in health care reform legislation.
At a closed-door meeting, President Obama expressed support for protection from liability for doctors who follow standard practice guidelines. He indicated that inclusion of this issue in health care reform legislation would hinge on Republican support for his plan. However, there is no mention of any liability reforms or protections in the most recent drafts of health care reform legislation.
An overhaul bill introduced last week by Senators Dodd and Kennedy does not include any provisions on medical liability. There is no mention of the issue in an outline of a House bill under development by three committees. And Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus isn’t expected to address it in legislation he plans to introduce, according to fellow lawmakers and senior aides.
If the President is serious about reform, Protect Patients Now urges Senate Democrats who are tasked with writing this monumental legislation quickly get on the same page.
To read more about including changes to the medical liability system in health care reform legislation, click here.
A Surge of Support
This month, editorial pages across the country were filled with pieces about health care reform, and most notable is the widespread support for medical liability reform.
In the New York Daily News, CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital Dr. Herbert Pardes cites the high cost of medical liability insurance as one of the biggest sources of skyrocketing health care costs. Click here to read Dr. Pardes’ op-ed.
The Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle supports a creative approach to better design a liability system that controls doctors’ insurance premiums and reduces out-of-control jury awards. Click here to read the editorial.
Lawrence Smarr, President of the Physicians Insurers Association of America, writes in USA Today about the toll that medical lawsuit abuse takes on patients, and how it becomes more difficult and inefficient to distinguish frivolous lawsuits from those with merit. Click here to read Lawrence Smarr’s letter to the editor.
And the Wall Street Journal urges President Obama to make medical liability reform more than just a political gesture – and enact real changes to a broken system that only benefits trial lawyers while leaving patients behind. Click here to read the WSJ editorial.
