Tackling a tough one.Byline: The Register-Guard Today's pop quiz Noun 1. pop quiz - a quiz given without prior warning quiz - an examination consisting of a few short questions : What happens when you put four doctors and four lawyers in a room and tell them to work on the problem of ballooning medical malpractice Improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. insurance premiums in Oregon? A. Fisticuffs B. Gridlock Gridlock A government, business or institution's inability to function at a normal level due either to complex or conflicting procedures within the administrative framework or to impending change in the business. C. Compromise If you picked "compromise," it's because you studied for today's quiz by reading news reports over the weekend. Either that or you're just lucky, because it sure isn't the outcome reached in previous efforts to tackle this contentious issue. But with the help of two state senators - one a doctor and the other a trial lawyer - the working group has broken new ground with a promising proposal that deserves bipartisan support in the Legislature. Even more amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. : The approach doesn't depend on the flim-flam of limiting damage awards to victims of medical malpractice. With the guidance of Sens. Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (February 17, 1934 – December 27, 2003) was an English actor. Biography Early life Bates, the eldest of three brothers, was born in Allestree, Derby, the son of Florence Mary (Wheatcroft), a homemaker, and Harold Arthur Bates, an , D-Ashland, and Charlie Ringo, D-Beaverton, "cordial cordial: see liqueur. but intense" discussions have yielded substantive strategies for addressing the troubling upward spiral in the cost of medical malpractice insurance. The heart of the proposal is a new screening panel that would evaluate malpractice claims before they go to trial, with the goal of eliminating frivolous claims. The plan also calls for the creation of a malpractice self-insurance fund for Oregon doctors, similar to the Professional Liability Fund maintained by the state's attorneys. For the Bates-Ringo proposal to survive in the Legislature, it will have to win the blessing of two heavyweight professional organizations - the Oregon Medical Association and the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association. They duked it out last November over Ballot Measure 35, a constitutional amendment supported by the health care and insurance industries that would have limited pain and suffering awards in malpractice trials to $500,000. After enduring an enormously expensive and bitter statewide media duel, voters defeated Measure 35 by a slim 27,803 votes out of 1.76 million cast. Though it was the second time damage caps have been defeated, the underlying issue isn't going away. Escalating Oregon malpractice insurance Noun 1. malpractice insurance - insurance purchased by physicians and hospitals to cover the cost of being sued for malpractice; "obstetricians have to pay high rates for malpractice insurance" premiums continue to cause some specialists - particularly neurosurgeons and obstetricians - to limit or leave their practices, especially in rural areas. Physician Bates Bates , Katherine Lee 1859-1929. American educator and writer best known for her poem "America the Beautiful," written in 1893 and revised in 1904 and 1911. and lawyer Ringo are calling their proposal a compromise for good reason: It includes elements that will be a tough sell for both sides. Doctors are keen on the idea of screening, because it eliminates frivolous claims and increases the chances for out-of-court settlements An agreement reached between the parties in a pending lawsuit that resolves the dispute to their mutual satisfaction and occurs without judicial intervention, supervision, or approval. . Lawyers are loath loath also loth adj. Unwilling or reluctant; disinclined: I am loath to go on such short notice. [Middle English loth, displeasing, loath to substitute a screening panel's decision for a client's day in court. Doctors also must finally let go of their support for the insurance industry's self-serving argument that malpractice premiums won't decrease without strict caps on noneconomic damage awards. Nothing could be further from the truth. The latest authoritative analysis in a long list of studies that discredit damage caps was released earlier this month by the Center on Lawyers, Civil Justice and the Media at the University of Texas, Austin. Three law professors and one professor of law and medicine researched years of 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. in Texas and found that neither jury verdicts nor payouts to patients were responsible for causing skyrocketing premiums for doctors. Using a comprehensive database of closed claims maintained since 1988 by the Texas Department of Insurance, the researchers found "no evidence of the medical malpractice crisis that produced headlines over the last several years and led to legal reform in Texas and other states. The rapid changes in insurance premiums that sparked the crisis appear to reflect insurance market dynamics, largely disconnected from claim outcomes." The inescapable conclusion is that no lasting reform of the medical liability system is possible unless it includes a mechanism for states to have meaningful input into "insurance market dynamics." This debate has outgrown one-sided solutions that benefit insurance companies at the expense of injured patients. The Bates-Ringo plan appears to move Oregon in the right direction on malpractice rate relief. |
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