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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (23366)	1/7/2004 5:24:35 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793697

<<The reason I mentioned Grisham is that I'd never really thought about the ethics involved in settling "within the grid". I thought the book about class actions was a fair rendition for laymen of what can go wrong, ethically. I think that's the leverage point in these cases - disbarment.>> Good read, I just finished it. What I got out of it is that some of the lawyers who win huge settlements early on have so much money they are immune to the penalties when things blow up.

To: Ilaine who wrote (23366)	1/9/2004 8:26:36 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793697

Gingrich says one of the major reasons for building overseas plants is the Tort problem. Huge jury awards drive doctors away, costs up Dr. William J. MacDonald is president of The Everett Clinic and a practicing cardiologist. The Everett Clinic has 1,200 employees and more than 200 primary and specialty-care physicians. It serves more than 275,000 patients throughout Snohomish County. Patients should be able to find a doctor when they need one. Unfortunately, we're short on doctors in Washington state, and it's getting worse. Last year, 12 physicians at The Everett Clinic alone stopped doing baby deliveries, due to skyrocketing liability-insurance premiums in our state. Emergency-room physicians at Providence Everett Medical Center have had their insurance company refuse to insure them at any price, effective April 1. Doctors can't practice without insurance. Good people — doctors who have never had a judgment against them — are leaving Washington or retiring. It's because the cost of liability insurance is too high, and their liability exposure may wipe them out. Reasonable changes to the liability-insurance system are needed immediately, before more doctors are driven out of business and more patients are left stranded. Increasingly huge awards are the root cause of the insurance-premium increases. These must be contained without jeopardizing the legitimate rights of patients who have been injured by negligence. Multiple studies show the problem is skyrocketing claim costs, particularly "pain and suffering" awards. The federal General Accounting Office (GAO) June 2003 report states it clearly: "GAO found that losses on medical malpractice claims — which make up the large part of insurers' costs — appear to be the primary driver of rate increases in the long run." Many insurance companies are abandoning the medical business because of their increasing losses. What's worse is that studies show the majority of lawsuits are filed in cases where there was no medical malpractice. Washington's high medical-liability rates hurt ordinary people in many other ways. Insurance has become so expensive that some hospitals have to cut back purchases of new, life-saving technologies. Nurses and staff get cut, and service to patients suffers. And defensive medicine (extra testing done for legal reasons but not medically needed) costs lots. This liability crisis hurts us by driving out your doctors and driving up your costs. The result is too many patients can't find a doctor, or find that doctors are no longer providing the service they need. Health-care problems that could be treated with relative ease are neglected until they get much worse. More people turn to emergency rooms for routine care. So the costs for everyone — employers, workers, taxpayers — continue to escalate dramatically. To begin to ease the medical-liability crisis, there must be recognition by all sides that there is no single answer. It will require give and take in several different areas. Here are reforms the Legislature could enact as part of an overall solution: • Improve patient safety — A 1-percent levy on legal awards and settlements would provide funding to Washington's Department of Health to immediately improve patient safety. • A cap on non-economic damages in medical-liability cases — Injured patients must receive full payment for all lost wages and all medical expenses — and fair compensation for pain and suffering. Insurance premiums actually drop in states with a cap such as $250,000 on "pain and suffering." California, Pennsylvania and Texas are examples. • Share quality-improvement and medical-disciplinary information between hospitals and medical groups — When it comes to getting an accurate assessment of a physician's performance at another institution, current laws hamstring us. • Allow binding arbitration — This can provide more money, faster, to injured patients. • Early offers of settlement — Early offers can also get money to injured patients much more quickly, and eliminate the shocking costs of a trial. A rule requiring the plaintiff to pay defense attorneys' fees if the judgment is below the early offer would help control costs. • A sliding scale on fees paid to "expert" witness physicians and attorneys — This would increase the dollar level actually received by the injured patient. Currently, attorneys keep around 30 percent of any jury award no matter how much work is required. This is not in the patient's best interest. Democratic leadership and Gov. Gary Locke have proposed another insurance fund, and a modest raise in obstetrics payments, as the solution. But my 190 partners in Everett not doing obstetrics had their costs go up $23,000 per doctor in two years. And paying to establish another insurance fund just increases costs again. These ideas make recruiting bright and caring new doctors to Washington that much harder. The reforms suggested above are common-sense responses to the current medical liability crisis. Legislators need to set aside partisan differences and take action to protect consumers.