AMA: Georgia in malpractice crisis

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Posted 12:07PM on Wednesday, October 30, 2002

COLUMBUS, OHIO - Ohio and Georgia are among 12 states the American Medical Association has identified as being in crisis because rising medical malpractice rates are reducing patients access to health care. Surgeon Daniel McLaughlin planned to attend a Statehouse rally Wednesday to support capping medical malpractice verdicts. Dave Coover, who got a malpractice settlement for his daughter's brain damage, said he would be at an event next to the doctors' rally to protest such caps. Doctors crushed by rising malpractice insurance premiums and victims of medical malpractice have argued their cases before lawmakers for months. They planned side-by-side events Wednesday at the Statehouse expected to attract hundreds. McLaughlin, 44, of Cleveland, said he's attending the rally because he is concerned about the future of patients' access to quality health care. Medical malpractice insurance that he and his partner buy rose from $25,000 in 2001 to $125,000 this year, McLaughlin said. "We had to take out a loan so we could go to work this year," he said. The Ohio State Medical Association expected more than 2,000 doctors from around the state to attend. Coover, of suburban Columbus, was to be one of a group of between 50 and 100 victims of medical malpractice and their families also at the event. His daughter Lexi, 3, suffered severe brain damage when she was born in November 1998 and requires constant medical care. Coover, 41, settled with a Union County doctor and anesthesiologist but lost a lawsuit against the hospital. The settlement amount was sealed. "From the standpoint of the Legislature, there's a huge lobby for the doctors but the lobby for the victims, for the people who've undergone malpractice problems, people are not seeing that," said Coover, a regional sales manager for a Columbus manufacturing company. "I think they need to see that side of it." Gov. Bob Taft and Republican lawmakers are pushing a doctor-backed bill to limit financial damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Supporters say the bill is needed to reduce skyrocketing premiums that could force some doctors out of business. The legislation, which would cap awards for pain and suffering at $300,000, is modeled after a 1975 California law. Trial lawyers opposing the bill say bad doctors and insurance companies trying to recoup stock market losses are responsible for rising premiums, not jury awards. "You can't lose sight of the fact it's a very bad situation for doctors and health providers," said Maxwell Mehlman, director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University. On the other hand, people shouldn't forget that the legal system "does compensate innocent victims who have suffered tremendously from avoidable, unreasonable mistakes doctors and others have made," Mehlman said. The U.S. House in September passed a measure to cap the pain-and-suffering damages that juries may award in medical malpractice suits at $250,000. In Nevada, a new law that went into effect earlier this month caps pain-and-suffering awards at $350,000. The law exempts cases of gross malpractice and those in which a judge finds clear and convincing evidence to warrant a higher award. In Pennsylvania, the state Senate unanimously approved a bill this month to eliminate so-called "venue shopping," which refers to victims and lawyers seeking out courts that are most likely to favor their cases. The law requires victims to file lawsuits in the county where the alleged malpractice occurred. McLaughlin said the presence of victims at the rally emphasizes the importance of working together to solve the problem. "Doctors involved need to do a better job, attorneys involved need to do a better job, the judicial system needs to be amended because it's breaking the back of the medical profession and the insurance industry needs to be called to task as well," he said. The 12 crisis states identified by the American Medical Association: Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.