Pennsylvania recently amended its long-standing law regarding joint and several liablity. Joint and several liability applies when more than one party is responsible for an injury. Under the old law, any party at least one percent at fault was jointly and individually liable for all of the damages. This protected the injured victim when the most responsible party had insufficient insurance or assets. This has now changed with the recent amendments. The joint and several liability amendments limit the liability of a defendant who is less than 60% at fault to his proportionate share of liability. Under the amendments’ language, however, … [Read more...]
Why Not Cap Hospital CEO Salaries Too?
April 4, 2011 by
Governor Cuomo of New York has proposed to cap medical malpractice awards at $250,000. A New York legislator, Deborah Glick, has submitted a bill capping hospital CEO salaries at $250,000 also. If $250,000 is enough to cover a lifetime for a medical error, according to Ms. Glick, then it should be enough for a CEO's yearly salary. What a refreshing idea! … [Read more...]
Many Doctors Disciplined But Escape Licensing Action
March 18, 2011 by
According to the National Practitioner Data Bank, from 1990 to 2009, over 10,000 doctors had clinical privilege actions. This means restriction or revocation of their privileges. However, almost 6000 of these doctors had no action taken against them by their state licensing board. Almost 2000 of these doctors had the most serious violations. The state licensing boards are sleeping on the switch. To improve medical care, let's weed out the bad doctors, not worry about tort deform which takes away patients' rights. For more information … [Read more...]
Less Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Being Filed in Pennsylvania
March 17, 2011 by
According to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, in 2009 there were only 1,533 medical malpractice lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania. This represents a 42 percent decline in medical malpractice lawsuits in Pennsylvania since 2000. … [Read more...]
Medical Malpractice Myths
February 16, 2011 by
Here is a video that addresses many of the medical malpractice myths: … [Read more...]
Tort Reform Laws Don’t Lower Healthcare Costs
May 28, 2010 by
Medical providers, their professional associations, and lobbyists often claim that limiting recoveries in malpractice lawsuits will lower healthcare costs. This is called tort reform, or as some of us like to refer to it, tort deform. In 2004, Ohio passed a law limiting verdicts for pain and suffering to $250,000 except in catastrophic cases, restricting punitive damages and making it harder to take a case to trial. Healthcare costs have continued to increase there despite this legislation. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, by 2008 the average family healthcare premiums were $11,425, an increase of 19%. … [Read more...]
Court Orders Pennsylvania to Fund Malpractice Assessment Account
April 21, 2010 by
In Pennsylvania, a medical professional fund, known as the MCARE Fund, has been established. This Fund is used to pay malpractice claims against medical providers in excess of their basic insurance coverage. The MCARE Fund is funded by an assessment on each participating healthcare provider. In 2003, Pennsylvania enacted an abatement law to reduce or eliminate MCARE providers’ required contributions to the MCARE Fund. To fund the abatement program, Pennsylvania established a special account known as the HCPR Account. The HCPR Account was, in turn, funded by increased cigarette taxes and a traffic violation … [Read more...]
New England Journal of Medicine Article: Malpractice Reform Should Focus On Disclosure and Early Resolution
April 15, 2010 by
In a recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (March 31, 2010), the authors recognize that traditional methods of malpractice reform, such as state caps on non-economic damages, may not be working. As noted in the article, this past February the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the state’s cap was unconstitutional. There are three distinct types of “disclosure and offer” programs. To discourage lawsuits, each of these programs encourage candid disclosure about medical injuries, apologies when appropriate and providing for the patient’s financial needs, in at least a limited … [Read more...]
Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Filings Decrease Dramatically
April 8, 2010 by
From 2003 to 2008, lawsuits for medical malpractice cases in Pennsylvania decreased 37% to 41% from the average number of cases filed in 2000 to 2002. This information is from statistics compiled by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Also according to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, for 2008, the most recent year available, the doctor, hospital or other medical provider won in over 81% of the medical malpractice lawsuits filed. Here in western Pennsylvania, the medical providers also won the malpractice lawsuits most of the time. For instance, in Allegheny County the jury found in favor of the medical provider in 14 … [Read more...]
