The Dallas Morning News came out with an article on February 15, 2003, that states if people want to get rid of medical malpractice they need to crack down on doctors (www.dallasnews.com ). Last year substantial evidence was dug up by the newspaper claiming that the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners for years had routinely refused to revoke the licenses of physicians who committed multiple mistakes causing the deaths of patients. Six percent of Texas physicians have two or more malpractice claims filed against them but this group accounted for more than half of all malpractice payouts since 1990. An article from the Houston Chronicle on January 15, agrees that “the evidence strongly suggests that the medical malpractice insurance crisis is at least partly due to actual malpractice and the failure of the medical profession to adequately supervise its members (www.chron.com).” The root to this problem is to give the Texas Board of Medical Examiners more authority to yank licenses and to bar doctors who have had a license to practice medicine revoked in another state from practicing in Texas. One of the problems faced by the Texas Board of Medical Examiners is not enough funding. The board has been allotted an insufficient amount of funds to weed out the bad apples. Physicians pay almost $22 million in license fees every year to the state and only $5 million of it goes to the board. The other $17 million is put into the state’s general revenue fund. More of this money should be given to the board so that they can do a better job supervising physicians. The board has been hostage to a tiny budget and a cozy relationship with the doctors it is supposed to regulate. In recent months, Dr. Donald Patrick, the board’s executive director, has increased investigative and legal staffs, stepped up case reviews, and advocated periodic competency testing for doctors. Basically, the Texas Board of Medical Examiners needs more funding so they can reestablish credibility in the field of medicine.

The Texas House Civil Practices Committee Chairman Joe Nixon filed legislation on February 12, 2003, to make Texas’ civil justice system more fair and efficient for doctors and patients as a result of recent lawsuit abuse in Texas . House Bill #3 calls for sweeping reforms that would curb the problem of medical lawsuit abuse in Texas and a state constitutional amendment that would ensure these reforms remain intact. The constitutional amendment is House Joint Resolution #3. Representative Nixon commented on the current crisis,” Frivolous medical liability lawsuits in Texas cost millions of dollars to patients and thousands of hours of time-time that is stolen from doctors, nurses, and other health care providers who want to spend it caring for their patients.” The results of frivolous lawsuits and unlimited rewards for pain and suffering damages have driven medical liability insurance companies out of Texas. A crisis has emerged where doctors and hospitals cannot afford the sharp increases in medical liability insurance premiums. House Bill #3 has three main objectives: first, to ensure just and full compensation for all Texans who have valid medical liability claims including 100% recovery for all past/present/future medical expenses and all past/present/future lost earnings. Second, to ensure access to medical care for all Texans (from expectant mothers to victims of accidents) by making health care liability premiums available and affordable for Texas Health Care providers. Third, to stop the current frivolous medical liability “Texas lawsuit lottery” with a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damage awards, necessary procedural reforms, and a limitation on unreasonable lawyer contingency fees. These objectives were released in a House Civil Practices Committee Hearing on medical malpractice. Only three witnesses were summoned to the hearing representing the interests of insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, and other medical industry interests. Some medical malpractice victims called on Chairman Nixon to hold another informational gathering hearing for patients and victims of medical malpractice to offer their expert testimony and perspective to this important debate . In a letter written to Chairman Nixon, the families expressed their frustration with special interest influence over patient issues at the Capitol,” We do not have the resources and full-time lobbyists like the industries that you have invited to testify. We believe that as Texas families and Texas voters we also deserve an uninterrupted hearing before your committee to air our concerns and solutions to the medical malpractice crisis in this state.” The families feel like that have not had fair representation on the matter and want the Civil Practices Committee to hold another “information gathering” hearing so they can get their views noticed. One startling fact that was produced from the hearing was that 76% of all medical liability companies have left Texas in the past three years. The Texas Department of Insurance reports the number of medical liability companies in Texas have dropped from 17 to 4 since 2000. Without some measure of reform, this insurance premium crisis is only going to get worse. House Bill #3 is a similar kind of medical liability reform that was passed in California in 1975. They modeled HB#3 after the California legislation because of its success in avoiding a medical liability crisis like the one presently in Texas.

Malpractice premiums for physicians in Texas have risen anywhere from 50-200% in the past several years. The areas of profession that are directly concerned with this issue are doctors, lawyers, and medical liability insurance companies. Each profession has there own viewpoint and are starting to point fingers at each other, blaming one another for this growing problem. This issue needs to be dealt with in a quick and timely manner because rising malpractice premiums have gone through the roof.
Physicians believe the increased number of malpractice claims and the increase of cost of going to court as the two main reasons for the soaring premiums. According to the Texas Medical Association, liability insurers have left the market or consolidated with another company, leaving doctors with no choice of who insures them. With the number of malpractice cases increasing every year, it has lead to insurance companies to use more money toward defending their clients. This in turn leads the insurers to raising their rates. A solution proposed by the TMA's Committee on Professional Liability and Council on Legislation have produced a medical liability reform platform for the 2003 Texas Legislature. The main idea of the bill is to put a cap on noneconomic damages awarded to plaintiffs because outrageous settlements have had large impact on liability insurance premiums.
Lawyers are the second group of professionals who have a claim in this debate. Their main concern is that physicians need to be more responsible for their actions. The Texas Board of Medical Examiners has been slacking on taking proper discipline on those physicians who do mess up. They feel if the Board would take appropriate disciplinary actions, doctors would be a more careful and less careless. The organization, TexasWatch, produces awareness for patients' rights and believe the cap proposal to be obsurd . They believe that insurance companies should roll back their malpractice rates, not the rights of patients. A cap would put an arbitrary value on quality of life, when every life deserves individual consideration.
The last group included in this issue are the insurance companies. According to the insurer, the main influence of the rise in liability insurance is the rise in costs of going to trial. On average it costs insurance companies $10,000 to defend one case. With the steady increase of malpractice claims, insurers have no choice but to raise premiums to cover litigation expenses. They support the cap proposal because it will put an end to outrageous settlements awarded to plaintiffs. With a cap in place, there would be a minimum of what they could be sued for.

Test post

This weblog will discuss how and why liability insurance has risen for doctors in recent years and will also present some solutions to this problem.