THE FOLLOWING PROVIDES THE READER WITH SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE MEDICA LIABILITY CRISIS IN OHIO.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC, GO TO THE MEDICAL LIABILITY SECTION OF THIS WEB
SITE. [Medical Liability]
We have been hearing a lot about increased medical
liability insurance rates for physicians and hospitals lately. What does it mean?
All over the country, physicians and medical practices have had their rates for
medical liability insurance coverage increase dramatically.
Based on AMC/NOMA research, all physicians are experiencing 25 – 50% increases – some high-risk specialties, like obstetrics and neurosurgeons, have premiums going up 100 – 200%.
It means that doctors may not be able to afford these high costs. It may force doctors to retire early, go out of practice, drop high-risk procedures or go to another state with more friendly insurance rates.
Why is this happening?
There are several reasons:
How is this affecting medical
practices?
Doctors are required to have malpractice insurance to practice. If we can’t afford to pay for this insurance,
then we can’t practice. The system is
broken.
We will have to cut back on our expenses in other ways to keep practicing, such as putting off the buying of equipment, laying off staff, or delaying the hiring of associates.
We also may be forced to spend less time with patients, so that we can schedule more patients per day. Patients may have to wait months for an appointment.
And, because every patient is now a potential litigant, it is hurting the doctor-patient relationship. An adversarial relationship benefits no one on either side of the stethoscope.
Everyone will be the loser if the insurance system continues to drive physicians out of the practice of medicine.
What can be done?
First, we recommend that patients talk with their doctors about this situation, so
that they have a clear understanding of how their doctor may be affected.
Second, we recommend that the public contact their Ohio legislators to show their support for medical liability reform, which is designed to reform our current system of settling medical malpractice suits.
This is a situation that is serious, and we want to address it before it does damage to our excellent medical care system in NE Ohio and throughout the state.
· Medical liability reform means enacting legislation that regulates how individuals are compensated when they sue to recover damages in a civil action. In other words, it means putting specific measures into state law to cover such things as how much doctors and hospitals pay in damages in medical liability cases. In other states that have passed laws that put reasonable limits on jury awards and settlements, they have been able to significantly restrain increases in the cost of liability insurance. We need this type of legislation in Ohio.
· Yes. Currently there is a piece of legislation that has been submitted called Senate Bill 281. This bill was introduced by Senator David Goodman. Senate Bill 281 has the support of organized medicine and Governor Taft. Other states have faced their medical liability problems head on by enacting lawsuit abuse reforms. Ohio must do the same.
Here are some of the provisions we feel are important.
· A $300,000 cap on non-economic damages. There is no cap on damage awards for lost wages or medical expenses.
· Limit on attorney contingency fees to discourage frivolous lawsuits.
· Payment of jury awards over time instead of in a lump sum.
· Disclosure to juries in cases where plaintiffs already have been paid by insurance companies for medical expenses and loss of income.
· An alternative dispute resolution method such as mediation to solve disputes other than through the court process.
· Maintaining compliance with the Ohio constitution that calls for no limits on awards in cases of wrongful death.
· Protects the patient's right to seek redress in cases of actual medical malpractice.
· We are hopeful that Senate Bill 281 will move quickly through the Ohio Senate and House. We are confident that Governor Taft will sign the bill into law at the earliest possible date. On the federal level, President Bush has supported tort reforms of this type. The current system is out of control and reasonable tort reform will restore balance to the system. Without meaningful reforms, access to high quality, state of the art medical care will be jeopardized as a result of skyrocketing medical liability insurance premiums that doctors and hospitals must pay. We hope that as the public learns more about the seriousness of this situation they will bring their concerns forward to the state legislature.
The American Medical Association identifies Ohio as one of a dozen states in the highest level of crisis concerning the negative effect that escalating medical liability insurance premiums have had, and will continue to have, on the doctor-patient relationship. Can you explain in more detail what this crisis is about and how it will affect patient care?
Today, the practice of medicine has become more expensive, because the cost of paying for medical liability insurance has gone through the roof. This is a national problem, not just here in Ohio, but we need to do something about it before it results in our starting to lose our doctors through retirement or through an exodus of our state. This already is happening in other states, and in some specialties, such as obstetrics, patients are being forced to travel to other parts of their state or go out of state for care.
The key to this crisis is dealing with lawsuit abuse, where doctors in high-risk specialties are being sued regularly, even though those cases that actually go to trial are less than 2% of all the suits brought. As a result, malpractice insurance rates are going up as much as 100 to 200%. Even doctors that have never been sued have had large increases in their premiums. The end result is that doctors need relief or they may leave practice.
Yes, we have seen early retirements because of the increase in medical liability premiums.
According to AMC/NOMA research, 24% of physicians responding to a poll are considering retiring from practice and 17% are contemplating leaving the state if medical liability premiums continue to go up as quickly as over the past year.
A national survey indicated that 78% of Americans are concerned about access to care because doctors are leaving their practices.
Our first concern is how this will affect patients’ access to care. Our patients deserve the best care possible and we need to be able to deliver it to them.
It will mean longer hours for doctors, and longer waits for patients to see the doctor.
With less doctors, there will be more pressure on doctors to pick up caseloads of those who have retired or left the state.
This affects all patients, but it will be particularly hard on those who can’t afford to pay for their care.
In a recent poll by the AMC/NOMA, of those doctors who responded, 24% said they would consider closing their practice to Medicaid patients, 8% to Medicare patients, and 24% of the doctors may need to stop seeing uninsured patients.
This could force uninsured patients to seek medical help at emergency rooms, wait longer to see doctors, and have less access to specialists.
It also will increase what we know as defensive medicine. 76% of physicians, according to a recent Harris poll, believe that concern for medical liability litigation has hurt their ability to provide quality care in recent years and nearly all physicians and hospital administrators feel that unnecessary or excessive care is provided because of their fear of being sued.
Doctors are informing the public about this situation by talking with their patients and their staff. We also have brought this problem to our state legislators, and we are looking forward to some legislative reform of the medical liability system. We need the public’s understanding and support of this issue.