The eMatchPhysicians Blog

Protecting Patients by Protecting Doctors – Malpractice and You

Posted on: Friday, March 13, 2009

When litigation rears its ugly head as it often does in the medical industry, many physicians tend to “head for the hills” rather than practice in a state or county that is known for egregious lawsuits. In 2005, the state of Illinois enacted a medical lawsuit reform law that sought to cap malpractice lawsuits that had become a problem in counties such as Madison and St. Clair. These counties were actually losing doctors from the out-of-control lawsuits that had been awarded in those particular districts. The 2005 law effectively capped these lawsuits while still protecting patients. Malpractice insurance premiums which had previously been ridiculous in Illinois fell to acceptable levels, with some counties seeing drops as high as 30%.

In Hawaii, a malpractice claim must first be submitted to a board called the Medical Claims Conciliation Panel in order to determine the validity of the claim. Once an assurance of claim validity has been obtained from a specialist in the same field, the case may proceed to court. Only 100 of these were filed in 2008. While Hawaii currently has no caps on malpractice awards, this process ensures that most cases that make it to court are valid in the eyes of the medical profession.

In order to protect against any kind of claim, a doctor must purchase malpractice insurance. The cost of this insurance has nearly doubled in the last five years for long-term care providers. In southeast Pennsylvania, annual malpractice insurance increases of 40% or more are commonplace for these providers. In Pennsylvania and Florida, obstetrics units were forced to shut down altogether because of the cost of malpractice awards arising from alleged medical errors which occurred during births.

While state legislation does seem to help protect against frivolous lawsuits, as in the states of Hawaii and Illinois, lack of proper legislation seems to hurt the state, as in the case of Pennsylvania. The federal government is leaving tort reform up to individual states as a rule, although this may change under the more progressive and health-care minded Obama administration. While Obama has not come out with an official position on tort reform for malpractice lawsuits yet, much of the medical community is holding their breath and waiting for what will be an essential position.

While waiting for tort reform to become reality, it is helpful to learn from the examples of organizations that have been operating in states that have little to no tort reform. Pennsylvania is a good example. While the state has a reputation for high malpractice awards, in reality not very many cases are actually ruled in the favor of the plaintiff. In 2003, laws similar to Hawaii’s were put in place which require the plaintiff to seek a certificate from a medical professional ruling that the care provided was outside of acceptable standards. Many medical professionals still believe that Pennsylvania is a hotbed for malpractice even though the reforms have been in place for years.

The first thing to do is to find out what the attitudes are of potential recruits towards your state through surveys and networking. If they are unfavorable, have on hand articles and statistics which show that reforms have curbed frivolous malpractice lawsuits. If your organization was in Pennsylvania, you could tell potential recruits that malpractice cases in 2007 were down to 1617, as opposed to 1693 in 2006 and 2903 in 2002, the year the legal reforms took place. Declining malpractice case numbers will assuage the fears of anyone who is considering a position in your state. It is up to your organization to arm yourselves with these numbers before questions are asked.

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