Page 5 - SFHN717pagesFINAL.qxp_SFHN 0608 Friday 5.0

Malpractice Insurance

EXPERT ADVICE

Hold On! A Glimmer of Hope:

Two Medical Tort Reform Bills

Being Considered in Washington!

Between the Trump administration’s recently
released proposed budget and the Republicans’
American Health Care Act, hope is being
rekindled for possible relief from Washington
on recent tort-reform setbacks in Florida, as
well as many other states where tort reforms
passed in the late 2000s have been overturned.
Two bills currently in the Congress sausage
machine:
In the U.S. House of Representatives, there
are currently two bills addressing tort reform.
The first, by Republican Representative Phil
Roe of Tennessee, formerly an OB, creates safe
harbors for doctors who follow predetermined BY MATT GRACEY
practice guidelines that he proposes be estab-
lished by the U.S. Department of Health &
Human Services choosing specialized entities such as medical societies,
including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, to
write the clinical-practice guidelines. Any patient suing a doctor would first
have to prove that the doctor was not following the guidelines. Most impor-
tantly, the burden of proof would fall on the patient, as the presumption
would be non-negligence.
The Protecting Access to Care Act, filed by Republican Representative
Steve King, is the second bill being considered. The bill limits attorney fees,
imposes a three-year statute of limitations, replaces joint and several rules
with a fair-share rule, and creates a $250,000 cap on all non-economic dam-
ages, so this sounds like every doctor’s dream!
If either bill passes and is made into law it would greatly benefit doctors,
and would quickly reduce the cost of defensive medicine for medical prac-
tices and malpractice insurance.
The increasing number of “runaway jury” awards, known as “shock loss-
es” in the malpractice insurance industry, is a big reason for the high cost of
medical malpractice insurance. High jury awards are mostly based on the
non-economic portion of judgements and create havoc for insurance com-
panies that rely on highly skilled actuarial experts to recommend pricing
levels, since these shock losses are very difficult for anyone to predict.
Trump’s budget assumes a savings of $55 billion by the enactment of just
the $250,000 cap on non-economic-damage awards, so I do believe we will
see a concerted Republican push for tort reform sooner rather than later to
take advantage of their current control of both houses of Congress and the
White House. The medical community’s slogan should probably be “If Not
Now, Never”.

Matt Gracey, medical malpractice
insurance specialist with Danna-Gracey,
can be reached at (800) 966-2120 or
matt@dannagracey.com.

E-mail Your Editorial Submissions to
editorial@southfloridahospitalnews.com

South Florida Hospital News southfloridahospitalnews.com July 2017 5