PANEL CONSIDERS IMPACT OF MEDMAL PREMIUMS ON ACCESS TO CARE.Another congressional committee took up the cost of medical malpractice Improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. Oct. 1, with the House Government Reform subcommittee on human rights The Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. Standing Committees of the European Parliament Chairman Dan Burton Danny "Dan" Lee Burton (born June 21 1938), American politician, is a member of the United States House of Representatives for Indiana's At-large congressional district. A Republican, his first term in the United States Congress began in January 1983. (R-IN) opened the hearing by saying the 176 percent increase in medical malpractice awards between 1994 and 2001 has resulted in medical malpractice insurance premiums costing twice as much in 2001 as they did a decade earlier. "These outrageously high liability insurance premiums and losses have caused many doctors who offer life-saving services to relocate their practices, change specialties or retire from medicine altogether, thus limiting patients' access to quality medical care," he said. In his testimony, former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff agreed malpractice premiums had increased sharply in the past two years, but disagreed the increase was having an adverse effect on access to care. He noted used physicians' income figures from the magazine Medical Economics to argue the increased cost of malpractice coverage has reduced their incomes by only 1.2 percent for cardiologists and 5.5 percent for obstetrician-gynecologists. To smooth out the increases, Congress, state legislatures and insurance commissioners could compress the rating categories among doctors and give more weight to loss experience within the categories; require prior approval for rate increases; repeal the insurance industry's antitrust exemption; set up state-authorized malpractice insurers; and establish standards for insurers to use in estimating their anticipated losses. Sherman Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), founded in 1986, is an organization that advocates for "tort reform." Its membership consists of more than 300 businesses, corporations, municipalities, associations, and professional firms. , blamed the increased premiums on rising jury verdicts. The national reporting service Jury Verdict Research Verdict Research is a United Kingdom-based company founded by retail analyst Richard Hyman in 1984. It conducts research into all aspects of retailing and consumers. Acquisition by Datamonitor found the median medical liability verdict in 2001 was $1 million and the mean verdict was $3.9 million, up 34 percent from 1998, he said. "The current costs of the litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. system impose burdens on taxpayers and individual physicians," Joyce said in his testimony. "This compromises innovation in delivering improvements to patient safety. The result is a medical liability system that is too costly, offers little deterrent value, and, at best, does little to promote improvements in patient safety." Joyce called for passage of legislation along lines of California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) of 1975 was a California law designed lower medical malpractice premiums for Californians. Parts Micra Consists of the following parts: Malpractice rates for an internist internist /in·tern·ist/ (in-ter´nist) a specialist in internal medicine. in·ter·nist n. A physician specializing in internal medicine. in Los Angeles now Wikipedia is not the place for advertisement or self-advertising. Los Angeles Now, a documentary by Producer/Director Phillip Rodriguez, made its national high definition broadcast premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens series in November 2004. are $11,164, compared with $26,404 for an internist in Chicago and $56,153 for one in Miami, Joyce said. "Escalating jury awards and the high cost of defending against lawsuits, even meritless ones, have caused medical liability insurance premiums to reach unprecedented levels," agreed Dr. John C. Nelson of the American Medical Association American Medical Association (AMA), professional physicians' organization (founded 1847). Its goals are to protect the interests of American physicians, advance public health, and support the growth of medical science. . He called for Congress to pass H.R. 5 - passed by the House last March - with its $250,000 cap on non-economic damages and cap on punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer. of $250,000 or twice economic damages, whichever is greater. The subcommittee also heard from Dr. James Tayoun, a Philadelphia surgeon who said if he moved to Delaware he could get coverage for $34,000 instead of $133,437. "And the one fact I ask you all to note that is going unnoticed is physicians can leave but patients cannot," Tayoun said. "Pennsylvania has the second oldest population in the country. The senior citizens do not have the resources to follow their physician across state lines. It is the elderly and needy throughout America who will suffer," he said. "A national problem requires a national solution," testified former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. "I recognize that the same political pressures that have so watered down reform efforts in many states may well prove to be an insurmountable impediment to the Senate's following this body's lead in passing a federal reform bill," he said. "But something must be done, and it must be done nationally, comprehensively and soon." |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion