MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CRISIS?!?

Is the rising cost of malpractice insurance getting in the way of good health care? Are doctors leaving North Carolina because of high malpractice insurance rates? What needs to be done? Doctors and their insurance companies are suggesting that limits be placed on what a jury can award for medical malpractice. First of all, you need to know several things about medical malpractice cases:

1. Doctors are not leaving North Carolina. The number of doctors in North Carolina has increased by 29% over the last nine years, faster than the state's population growth;
2. According to the National Center for State Courts, less than 1% of all medical malpractice cases nationwide in 2002 produced jury verdicts for patients claiming injury;
3. In the 19 states that have placed limits on malpractice verdicts, the limits have failed to prevent increases in malpractice insurance premiums. In fact, in the states with those limits, malpractice premiums actually grew faster than in nearly three dozen states without them. Insurance company representatives admit that tort reform will not lead to lower premiums;
4. California finally controlled the insurance rates by not attacking victims, but by reforming the insurance industry and rolling back premium increases;
5. According to the data, medical malpractice insurance rates don't rise because of jury awards, they rise or fall mostly because insurance companies lose or make money on their investments, and many of their investments haven't done well lately. Insurance companies make most of their profits, not from premiums, but from investing those premiums;
6. The people who would be hurt most by medical malpractice limits and reform would be the people who were most grievously injured by medical errors;
7. The majority of the medical errors are created by a small group of doctors; and
8. Like in any other case that goes to trial, a jury of every day people listen to what happened and make a decision as to who should win and what, if anything, should be paid.

There are three things that need to be done to address this medical malpractice crisis:

1. REFORM THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY. During good times, insurance companies underprice premiums and rely on stock market investments to produce profits. When the market is bad, the companies abandon the doctors or increase their premiums. When the doctors protest, tort reform, such as limits on recoveries, becomes the response, even though the recoveries had very little to do with the problem. In fact, Congress has granted insurance companies special privileges, including preventing the Federal Trade Commission from investigating insurance company rip-offs. These special privileges need to go, and doctors should not pay for their insurance company's bad investments.
2. MAKE DOCTORS POLICE THEMSELVES TO REDUCE MEDICAL ERRORS. According to the Institute of Medicine, as many as 98,000 Americans die each year from medical mistakes in hospitals. The amount of medical mistakes needs to decrease. By making medical care safer, we can help patients and reduce doctors' insurance premiums. Two of the things that can be done are: (a) making the reporting and public disclosure of medical errors mandatory so that patients can have access to information about a doctor's performance, (b) adjust malpractice premiums based on performance and experience. Bad doctors should pay higher premiums than good doctors.
3. PUNISH LAWYERS WHO FILE FRIVILOUS LAWSUITS. There are some frivolous lawsuits out there. Lawyers who bring actions for people who aren't really hurt should be punished. Before filing a lawsuit, make lawyers get an unbiased opinion from another doctor that real malpractice has occurred. (We are already doing this in North Carolina).