Tort Reform

It looks like the Bush Administration has done something that I agree with in dealing with tort reform. They commissioned a study by the University of Iowa and the Urban Institute to "help state boards of medical examiners in disciplining doctors." The HoustonChronicle.com reports that the finding are that only a small number of doctors have a high proportion of malpractice claim (this is nothing new). State medical boards and underfunded and understaffed while the process of "revoking an incompetent doctor's license can take months or years." Gathering more information is almost always a good idea.

So what is a good response to this information?

Massachusetts has adopted an approach that experts say may provide a model for other states. Without waiting for a complaint to be filed, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine conducts a clinical review of any doctor who has made three or more malpractice payments to patients, as a result of jury verdicts or settlements. Nancy Achin Audesse, executive director of the board, said: "Three is a magic number. Doctors who have to make three or more payments are also more likely to be named in consumer complaints and to be subject to discipline by hospitals and the medical board."

In Massachusetts during the last 10 years, Audesse said, "one-fourth of 1 percent of all the doctors — 98 of the 37,369 doctors — accounted for more than 13 percent of all the malpractice payments, $134 million of the $1 billion in total payments."

I recently signed a petition for an initiative in the state of Washington calling for a similar process. If, by dealing with only .25% of the doctors in a state, you can reduce malpractice payments by 13%, then surely the Administration (and the insurance industry) would be fully supportive!

President Bush continues to push for limits on jury awards for medical mistakes with a visit today to an Illinois county where the White House says frivolous lawsuits have run amok.

Bush says large malpractice awards have driven up the cost of business so high that doctors have to close their businesses or scale back services...

[Whitehouse spokesman] McClellan on Tuesday brushed aside questions about whether Bush would examine rising malpractice insurance rates. McClellan blamed "unlimited and unpredictable liability awards" for raising the cost of health insurance premiums and making insurance too expensive for some Americans.

Bush says tort reform is a key part of his plan to lower health care costs and help the more than 40 million uninsured Americans obtain coverage. Democrats in Congress say that won't amount to much savings, pointing to a year-old Congressional Budget Office report that said malpractice costs amount to only about 2 percent of overall health care spending.

You wouldn't expect Bush to let little things like research get in the way of his plans, would you?