Calls for "Tort Reform" Desperate Distraction From Health Care Debate

Those opposed to real health care reform are flailing to come up with real, alternative solutions to our current crisis. With all the talk of death panels, government takeovers, and rationing of care, now tort reform has been thrown into the mix.

Yet it will do practically nothing to lower health care costs, and certainly will not fix our broken health care system. However, it will most definitely hurt patients injured through no fault of their own. Seemingly, the effects of legislation on real people have somehow evaporated from the discussion.

To break through all the hyperbole, lies, and distortions, the American Association for Justice today released a new report, "Five Myths About Medical Negligence." The next time a cable news pundit or opponent of health care reform starts talking about tort law changes, chances are this manual will rebut their claims.

As the health care debate moves forward, here are the key myths and facts:

Myth #1: There are too many "frivolous" malpractice lawsuits.
Fact: There's an epidemic of medical negligence, not lawsuits. Only one in eight people injured by medical negligence ever file suit. Civil filings have declined eight percent over the last decade, and are less than one percent of the whole civil docket. A 2006 Harvard study found that 97 percent of claims were meritorious, stating, "portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown."

Myth #2: Malpractice claims drive up health care costs.
Fact: According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the total spent defending claims and compensating victims of medical negligence was just 0.3% of health care costs, and the Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office have made similar findings.

Myth #3: Doctors are fleeing.
Fact: Then where are they going? According to the American Medical Association's own data, the number of practicing physicians in the United States has been growing steadily for decades. Not only are there more doctors, but the number of doctors is increasing faster than population growth. Despite the cries of physicians fleeing multiple states, the number of physicians increased in every state, and only four states saw growth slower than population growth; these four states all have medical malpractice caps.

Myth #4: Malpractice claims drive up doctors' premiums.
Fact: Empirical research has found that there is little correlation between malpractice payouts and malpractice premiums paid by doctors. A study of the leading medical malpractice insurance companies' financial statements by former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff found that these insurers artificially raised doctors' premiums and misled the public about the nature of medical negligence claims. A previous AAJ report on malpractice insurers found they had earnings higher than 99% of Fortune 500 companies.

Myth #5: Tort reform will lower insurance rates.
Fact: Tort reforms are passed under the guise that they will lower physicians' liability premiums. This does not happen. While insurers do pay out less money when damages awards are capped, they do not pass the savings along to doctors by lowering premiums. Even the most ardent tort reformers have been caught stating that tort reform will have no effect on insurance rates.

Over 98,000 people die every year from preventable medical errors. That's like two 737s crashing every day for a whole year. Instead of focusing on tort law changes that won't fix health care, let's make sure people aren't injured in the first place. Not only will that lower costs, but most importantly, will improve health care for everyone.

 

Comments

[jymbo53]

VP med mal claims Physicians Ins Co Pompano Fla - med mal claims guy since 1985

re reform- cap non economic, pain cant be weighed( subjective)

Change the forum to binding arbitration. Each side gets one expert for liability, causation and damages. Each side picks an arbitor, who then agree on a third. Each side gets 2 hours to present their case and loser pays for the arbitration. This would alleviate the potential for crippling costs attached to losing, for the injured patient.
Loser pays only comes into play if the arbitration opinion is rejected, because the award was not high enough on the plaintiff side, or too high from the doctors view. Taking the process further will stimulate settlement.Isnt this good?

Defensive medicine causes way expensive diagnoses. Who'd care if the costs of care were reasonable? - anybody?

Many claim that 100,000 die from med mal each year - impossible to calculate. If this was true, how do you explain that only 3% of claimed med mal turns into litigation? Rather low, and the Plaintiff bar is missing out on 97% of all wrongful death cases out there ! Really? You get your bunion or hernia fixed and die and nobody starts yelling form the towers of justice. Yikes!

There is plenty of med mal claims to keep me busy since 1985.

A true fix requires alot of changes that would affect the core of this lucrative business. Therefore- it wont happen.

Jim

VP Physicians Ins Co Pompano Fl

[MKMD]

Great leftist propaganda, Anthony, right out of the Pelosi playbook. Here are some indisputable facts.

(1) The current tort system is torturing the medical profession. Talk with a few doctors.
(2) Most physicians drawn into the system are innocent. Sure, most are ultimately released, but this can take months or years. Doesn't this sound like fun? Costs us money and affects how we view our patients.
(3) The current system is the direct cause of billions of dollars of defensive medicine. Before you cry foul here, even the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has belatedly admitted this.
(4) Defensive medicine (read: tests that patients don't need) exposes them to medical risk.
(5) Most patients who are true victims of medical negligence are never captured by the system or compensated.

Does this sound like a system worth preserving? The legal system is much more dysfunctional than the health care system. For some balance, see www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com under Legal Quality category.

[Joanne Doroshow - Huffpost Blogger]

The Harvard School of Public Health found that the current system works: legitimate claims are being paid, non-legitimate claims are generally not being paid, and “portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown.” NEJM, May 11, 2006.

See the widely-quoted June New Yorker magazine article about why McAllen, Texas, “was the country’s most expensive place for health care.” The following exchange took place: “'It’s malpractice,' a family physician who had practiced here for thirty-three years said. 'McAllen is legal hell,' the cardiologist agreed. Doctors order unnecessary tests just to protect themselves, he said. Everyone thought the lawyers here were worse than elsewhere. That explanation puzzled me. Several years ago, Texas passed a tough malpractice law that capped pain-and-suffering awards at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Didn’t lawsuits go down? 'Practically to zero,' the cardiologist admitted. 'Come on,' the general surgeon finally said. 'We all know these arguments are bullshit. There is overutilization here, pure and simple.” Doctors, he said, were racking up charges with extra tests, services, and procedures."

CBO found on .3 percent savings due to so-called "defensive medicine" and little evidence of it under managed care because it “limit[s] the use of services that have marginal or no benefit to patients". Also cited, a study finding that such tort restrictions would lead to a .2 percent increase in the death rate - 4,853 more deaths yearly. Hardly a "savings."

[108DAYS]

That "98,000 deaths per year" statistic comes from a report that's over 10 years old. According to Dr. Don Berwick from the Institute for Healthcare Improvment, fifteen million injuries to patients per year is a current number. And you're right, this talk of malpractice reform is a red herring. We have caps on economic damages here in Texas, which has been effective at keeping victims out of the court house, but has done nothing to improve the quality of care. People are still being harmed or killed.