Recent News
Doctors win first safe harbor against ACA use in liability suits
Physician leaders hope a first-of-its-kind bill approved in Georgia protecting doctors from civil liability for breaching federal health system reform requirements will be replicated in other states. Medical associations long have been concerned that federal...
To Fix U.S. Budget, Reform Medical Malpractice Law
The sequestration that is about to take effect imposes too much austerity too soon, does so in a nonsensical way, and yet does little to improve the long-term U.S. fiscal picture. Far more beneficial would be to make sure that the deceleration in health costs we have...
Governor signs alternative to medical malpractice lawsuits
Gov. John Kitzhaber signed a bill today offering patients, doctors and hospitals an alternative to medical-malpractice lawsuits. Senate Bill 483 would allow them to enter into voluntary discussions and mediations, including settlement offers, under the authority of...
The Experts: How to Fix Health Care
What single change could be made to the current health-care reimbursement system to help bring down costs? Recent Journal Report articles on the future of Accountable Care Organizations and the expansion of Medicaid have touched on the issue of cost reduction.The Wall...
Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us
1. Routine Care, Unforgettable Bills When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie’s father had been treated...
MO GOP To Bring Back Tort Reform In 2013
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Missouri lawmakers have their eyes on reinstating liability limits for medical malpractice cases after the state Supreme Court struck down an existing cap on damages last summer. Republicans claim a supermajority when the Legislature meets...
Michigan governor signs medical malpractice tort reform legislation
LANSING, MI – Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation last week that strengthens the state’s medical malpractice tort laws and provides additional protection against lawsuits to physicians. The Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) initiated the...
The Drawn Out Process of the Medical Lawsuit
She was one of the most highly sought radiologists in her hospital, a doctor with the uncanny ability to divine the source of maladies from the shadows of black and white X-ray films. But one afternoon my colleague revealed that she had been named in a lawsuit,...
Branstad keeps his address quiet, serious
It was a mostly silent Legislature that took in Gov. Terry Branstad’s annual Condition of the State address Tuesday. Applause lines in the roughly 30-minute speech were rare, and lawmakers mostly ignored the cues to clap. That doesn’t necessarily mean legislators were...
Medical malpractice bills pass Senate, head to House for lame duck vote
LANSING, MI — Senators passed changes to the state’s medical malpractice laws after removing controversial parts of the bill package. The “Patients First Reform Package” now heads to the House for consideration during the last remaining weeks of the current...