Articles Posted in Malpractice Tort Reform

The president of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association, Wayne M. Willoughby, writes an excellent response in the Baltimore Sun to a Maryland doctor’s editorial arguing that we have a problem with frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits in Maryland.

Take whatever side you want on the medical malpractice tort reform issues, but it is impossible to argue that we have a problem with frivolous malpractice cases in Maryland. The Certificate of Merit requirement coupled with the financial cost of bringing a malpractice case does away with 99% of cases that should not be filed. I’m not saying that every malpractice case in Maryland should be won by the plaintiffs. That is simply not true. But tort reform advocates use “frivolous” frivolously because they know it is a good buzz word. But it is simply not a problem in Maryland.

More evidence doctors are focusing on insurance companies instead of medical malpractice lawyers. The American Medical Association has a new campaign called “the Cure for Claims.” Their mission: to force/encourage health insurers to pay claims quickly.

The AMA claims that $210 billion is added to the cost of health care because insurance companies do not pay claims in a timely manner. I’m doubting the $210 billion but I get the point. Look, medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland and around the country are nodding their heads because they know how difficult insurance companies can be. They business goal is to take in premiums and deny claims. (That line is flip and at times unfair but you get the point.)

For all of the nonsense about medical malpractice tort reform, doctors are now realizing that the real way to increase their profits and their salaries is to take on the insurance companies.

The Baltimore Sun ran a story on Tuesday about the shortage of doctors in Maryland’s rural areas.

The problem rural areas have is that doctors cannot earn what they can in more urban areas. Historically, MedChi, the Maryland state medical society, has tried to wrap all of these problems up and place them at the feet of Maryland medical malpractice lawyers, which causes their malpractice insurance rates to be too high.

This was always beyond silly because rural areas have so few successful medical malpractice claims in Maryland and malpractice rates reflect this. Thankfully, this Baltimore Sun article is void of any claims that the root of the problem is medical malpractice lawyers. I’m not sure if the MedChi has just dropped pushing that angle or whether the Baltimore Sun just tuned them out when they tried to blame malpractice lawyers. Either way, it is a welcome development. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-md.rural28jul28,0,7434366.story

Medical Economics has an editorial from a medical malpractice defense lawyer who has defended physicians in malpractice cases for over 32 years. The author expresses the opinion that after having tried over 200 medical malpractice jury trials and won over 90 percent of those cases that if the same cases had been tried before health courts, the number of plaintiff’s medical malpractice verdicts would have been much higher.

The idea behind health courts is that specially trained judges or a panel of medical doctors would hear medical malpractice cases without juries and decide liability and/or damages for the malpractice plaintiff.

This malpractice defense lawyer in this editorial praises the malpractice defense bar in Ohio for aggressively defending “questionable cases” as opposed to settling cases where there is only a small possibility of an adverse outcome and praises doctors for taking “time from their practices to participate in trials.” (Actually, I’m not sure participation was optional but okay.)

Many doctors in South Florida are reportedly flying with a net: 21% of medical doctors do not have medical malpractice insurance.

I have never seen data in Maryland, but I suspect the numbers are lower. My solution is simple: require all doctors practicing medicine in Maryland to have medical malpractice insurance. And while we are at it, all medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland should be required to have legal malpractice insurance as well, lest we be accused of being hypocrites.