This month, we start with the good news on the medical liability front. Medical liability reform, including reasonable limits on non-economic damages, is working in West Virginia and Nevada. Texas is overwhelmed by the positive effects of their reform efforts. Louisiana’s reform laws were upheld by that state’s Supreme Court. And the pro-reform forces in Illinois have gained a powerful advocate as they take their case to their Supreme Court.
In West Virginia, the Charleston Area Medical Center is attributing a rise in new doctors to medical liability reforms passed in 2003 that put a $250,000 limit on non-economic damages. They’re now recruiting around 20 new doctors every year, says the hospital’s CEO, compared to almost zero before reform. See the full story here.
In Nevada, doctors are coming back and insurance premiums are declining since the 2004 “Keep Our Doctors in Nevada” initiative placed reasonable limits on non-economic damages. See the full story here.
In Texas, the anti-reform Houston Chronicle complains that reforms have been much too effective. That’s right, so many doctors are flooding into the state that the bureaucrats can’t license them fast enough. The Chronicle’s down-in-the-mouth headline: “Doctors find a long wait to see patients in Texas: Voter-approved liability limits led to applicant flood from other states, licensing backlog.” See here. The trial lawyers, some of whom have had to disband their lucrative practices and move out of state aren’t pleased either. The rest of the population, however, expects the licensing snafus to be corrected in short order and is rejoicing over their state’s return to health care sanity. See story here.
In Louisiana, the state Supreme Court set aside an appellate court ruling that had challenged Louisiana’s limits on damages for medical liability claims. That means that the cap stands…for now. A further constitutional challenge is all but certain. Read the full story here.
In Illinois, super-lawyer Ted Olson has been hired by the Illinois State Medical Society to lead their defense of the 2005 limits on non-economic damages against the trial lawyer’s constitutional challenge. See story here.
The Bad….
Elsewhere, the crisis continues. Red alerts popped up this last month in Hawaii and our nation’s emergency rooms.
In Hawaii, Governor Linda Lingle called for medical liability reform in her State of the State address, and Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim warned the legislature about the growing shortage of specialists. To read more about the crisis in Hawaii, click here and here.
According to the State Insurance Commissioner, high premiums and the threat of lawsuits are the “Number 1” factor driving specialists out of emergency rooms and rural areas of the Islands. View the full report, here.
In our nations emergency rooms, the crisis deepens. As we recently shared with our supporters, US News is reporting on the devastating consequences that medical lawsuit abuse is having on patients in need of emergency care. Put simply, people are dying. According to the Joint Commission, our hospitals’ major credentialing body, a lack of specialists causes 21 percent of ER’s “sentinel events,” i.e. deaths and serious injuries due to lagging treatment. Read the alarming story here.
The Ugly….
According to OpenSecrets.com, lawyers and law firms spent almost $120 million to elect candidates in the 2006 elections, more than any other group with the exception of our nation’s retired population. (Click here for OpenSecrets’ contribution report.)
And what can we expect from these trial lawyer supported politicians? Victor Schwartz, general counsel of the American Tort Reform Association, says we’re likely to see provisions slipped into various bills expanding the right to sue. “I call them trial lawyers’ earmarks,” says Schwartz. (For the full story, click here.)
