Medical Liability Reform Requires National Action

Something to learn from Texas...and the non for profit hospitals have benefited as well..no wonder doctor licensing has increased here....BD 

The costs of medical litigation per person in the United States are far higher than in any other major industrialized nation in the world. Medical liability insurance costs have soared and the effect is evident with fewer students going into the medical community and seasoned professionals deciding on early retirement because staying in practice isn't financially feasible.

In 2003, the Texas legislature brought together major health care stakeholders to develop a solution to the problems Texas faced with sky-rocketing medical lawsuits and a declining pool of medical professionals. Ultimately, the House and Senate, along with the citizens of the State of Texas, managed to design and a approve plan that would ultimately transform medical justice in the state. Instead of having a single $250,000 cap, there would be a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages as it pertains to physicians, hospitals, and to second hospitals or nursing homes, for an aggregate cap of $750,000.
In 2006, only three years after passage, Medical Protective, one of the state's largest medical liability insurance carriers, was able to provide policyholders with 10% rate cut which was its 4th reduction since April of 2005. Texas Medical Liability Trust, another major medical liability insurance carrier, declared an aggregate of 22 rate cut for its costumers. Texas is licensing an average of 400 more doctors per year than before the reform took place.

Probably one of the most important unintended beneficiaries of the Texas Plan was that small community not-for-profit hospitals, self-insured for medical liability, have been able to take money out of their escrow accounts and put it back to work for those hospitals. These small not-for-profit hospitals, dotting the countryside, could improve their infrastructures, pay nurse's salaries, increase their information technology and generally improve the level of health care they provide the community.

Medical Liability Reform Requires National Action, USA