Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas has introduced legislation in the House that would authorize funding for states to create special health courts on a pilot project basis.
Known as the Medical Liability Procedural Reform Act of 2005, HR 1546 would authorize grants to as many as seven states to establish special health courts to restore reliability to medical justice. The hallmark of the courts would be full-time judges with health care expertise, whose sole focus would be on addressing medical malpractice cases. Each participating state would be required to report on the effectiveness of the health courts, and the U.S. Attorney General would be required to hire a research organization to evaluate them.
"American healthcare is in crisis, in part because patients and doctors have both lost confidence in the medical justice system," said Rep. Thornberry. "The solution, which this bill promotes, is a system of special courts which ensure that malpractice cases will be resolved by judges with the necessary medical expertise to guarantee consistency among similar cases."
Download HR 1546, the Medical Liability Procedural Reform Act of 2005.