Personal Injury Law

Obama to AMA: Open to Reform, Not Malpractice Caps

From President Obama speech today:

Now, I recognize that it will be hard to make some of these changes if doctors feel like they are constantly looking over their shoulder for fear of lawsuits. Some doctors may feel the need to order more tests and treatments to avoid being legally vulnerable. That?s a real issue. And while I?m not advocating caps on malpractice awards which I believe can be unfair to people who?ve been wrongfully harmed, I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine, and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines. That?s how we can scale back the excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care.

A lot of medical malpractice lawyers and their victims breathed a sigh of relief. I'm starting to feel like my post last week was a bit reactionary.

Full post as published by Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog on June 15, 2009 (boomark / email).