Putting patients first in New Mexico
As poor liability policies continue to lead to physician shortages in New Mexico, a new nonprofit is giving patients a platform to influence health care policy and ensure their own access to care.
Patient-Led NM aims to elevate patient voices in shaping reforms, including medical liability reforms, that improve health care access, quality, and affordability.
“The reason that our environment in New Mexico is not conducive to health care right now is the policy decisions that have been made,” said Annie Jung, executive director of the New Mexico Medical Society, one of the nonprofit’s founders. “There’s a lot of policies that could be improved upon,” Jung said. “Medical malpractice is at the center. That’s the linchpin, so that has to be fixed.”
The initiative highlights how policy decisions around medical liability, reimbursement, and taxes directly affect patient access to quality, affordable care. It seeks to gain additional bipartisan advocates among elected officials to enact liability reform in next year’s legislative session.
“This movement is led by patients, and that’s what makes it so powerful,” said John Wheeler, CEO of the Sacramento Mountains Foundation. By spotlighting the human experiences and real-life challenges in today’s health care environment, the nonprofit aims to push for practical reforms that bring doctors back in state.
Patient-Led NM is working to protect patients and ensure that everyone in the state can access the health care they need. To learn more about how patients are driving change in New Mexico’s health care system, click here.
AI is the next frontier in liability law
Augmented intelligence is rapidly transforming medicine, but policy surrounding its use is lagging behind these technological advancements. As AI tools begin assisting in diagnosis and treatment, a key question emerges: when errors occur, who’s responsible?
A recent Medical Economics article explores how liability is shifting in the age of algorithms. For now, physicians remain responsible for their outcomes, even when they rely on AI recommendations. “If an AI system provides a faulty recommendation that a physician follows, the doctor could still be held responsible,” the article notes.
Legal experts say the standard of care – the benchmark for what counts as reasonable medical practice – is evolving. “It’s very likely that AI will reshape the standard of care,” said David A. Simon, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., an associate law professor and expert on health care law and liability at Northeastern University. As AI becomes more widely accepted, experts see it becoming “more common, more capable, and more embedded in daily care.”
The article highlights growing calls for transparency and patient disclosure when AI meaningfully influences care. It also notes that liability insurers are starting to examine how AI changes risk, while state legislatures, such as California’s, are considering new laws to regulate disclosure to patients.
The Health Coalition on Liability and Access has also been at the forefront of education and advocacy in this area, hosting Perry Nielsen, a Stanford Biodesign Policy Fellow who is currently championing these efforts in the Office of Rep. Sam Liccardo. Nielsen highlighted recent studies that analyzed how not adopting the latest health care technology tools could run counter to standard of care – a key reason that regulatory challenges in health care AI remain.
For now, experts advise health care practitioners to validate AI tools, document their use, disclose them when appropriate, and maintain human oversight. Click here to understand more about how diligence, transparency, and oversight remain the strongest defenses for managing liability in medicine’s new AI frontier.
Social inflation shaping medical liability landscape
Shifting societal attitudes, coupled with economic inflation, are sending medical liability awards climbing to sky-high levels.
The liability landscape is now seeing that rising claim and legal costs are not only driven higher by traditional inflation, but influenced by public perceptions of accountability as a central driver.
“Social inflation is alive and well and remains a threat to rates in the medical professional liability line of business,” said Robert E. White, Jr., president of The Doctors Company, commenting in a recent Medscape article. Factors such as third-party litigation funding, social media influence, and changing views on the value of money amplify this trend and further fuel medical lawsuit abuse.
All of these factors are impacting the frequency and severity of claims. In 2023, claims exceeding $2 million represented 3.2% of total claims, up from 1.9% in 2013. Large verdicts are also climbing. Cases over $10 million nearly doubled between 2013–2015 and 2022–2024.
These escalating verdicts influence settlements and premiums by snowballing into ever higher damage awards. “These verdicts become the yardsticks by which all settlements are measured,” White said, highlighting the financial pressures on health care providers.
For physicians, managing liability in this era of rising social inflation requires diligence and proactive steps: carefully documenting care, communicating clearly with patients, and staying informed about evolving legal trends.
Click here to read more about strategies for navigating growing liability risks, as shifting social attitudes on liability lawsuits threaten patient access to affordable care.