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Malpractice reform argued in Harrisburg Sky-high premiums put bill before House Tuesday, January 29, 2002 By Christopher Snowbeck, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Doctors and lawyers are boarding separate buses this morning and motoring off to Harrisburg for a debate on the merits of malpractice tort reform.
Doctors say high jury awards, particularly in Philadelphia, are driving up premiums for medical malpractice insurance. That, in turn, is driving doctors from the state. Lawyers counter that premiums are going up simply because the insurance industry has fallen upon tough times. The rights of victims shouldn't be sacrificed, lawyers say.
The debate won't be settled today, but doctors and lawyers from around the state are busing in for dueling demonstrations -- the lawyers at 12:30 p.m., the doctors at 1:30 p.m. -- and individual meetings with legislators.
While physicians are packing their white coats for the trip and lawyers from Pittsburgh will dress casual, both groups have spent months tailoring their arguments on what ground rules should govern medical malpractice lawsuits.
"We want the representatives and senators to know that any restriction on patient safety is going to be a grave mistake and I use that word 'grave' intentionally," said Jack Goodrich, president of the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, which has chartered one bus that will carry 49 lawyers and victims.
The Allegheny County Medical Society is sending two buses with about 70 doctors plus another 10 administrators and patients. Among the reform proposals, doctors want a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages and limits on attorney contingency fees. Doctors also want damage awards to be paid out periodically over time, rather than in one lump sum.
Dr. Daniel Bursick, chief of neurosurgery at Mercy Hospital, will be on the doctors' bus. He says at a time when neurosurgeons have left Johnstown, Erie and Wheeling, more patients are driving from afar to his practice, yet the practice can't hire more doctors because of high premiums.
The average cost of malpractice insurance for neurosurgeons in the Pittsburgh area increased from $51,000 for 2001 to $80,000 this year, Bursick said.
Yesterday, another group of doctors, including some from Fayette County, went to Harrisburg to voice support for tort reform.
"If major tort reform is not signed into law this year, I will not be practicing in Pennsylvania next year," Dr. Owen Nelson, an orthopedic surgeon at Uniontown Hospital in Fayette County, said during a news conference in the Capitol rotunda.
Citizens for Consumer Justice, a Philadelphia-based consumer group, held a news conference yesterday opposing tort reform. The group cited a 1999 study which found insurance rates have not been reduced in states that have enacted tort reform.
"Consumers and patients should not allow insurers to take away their access to the courts," said Lauren Townsend, executive director of Citizens for Consumer Justice.
Within two or three weeks, legislators are expected to pass some sort of tort reform bill. A consensus committee of doctors, lawyers and state leaders has been meeting since December to come up with a compromise bill.
The House is expected to vote on a bill today that includes a tort reform amendment, but trial lawyers say the final legislation will look much different than the amendment put forth today.
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