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Medical Malpractice ? Over and Over Again

By Joe Consumer

U.S. House Republicans are set to announce ?their long-awaited governing agenda on Thursday at an event at a hardware store in Sterling, Va."  Congressional Quarterly?s Health Beat had an article earlier this week (not linkable, sorry about that), which began:

Last spring, when President Obama was trying to win Republican votes for the health care overhaul, he agreed to fund demonstration projects to look at medical malpractice. The issue has been one of the longest-running fights in health care, and the overhaul is the first law enacted that includes any provisions on the topic.

But that doesn't mean the issue is going away.?

The contentious issue "never goes away," says health care lawyer Julius Hobson.

Think this might come up on Thursday?  Welcome friends, to the release of a new flick, opening this week.  It?s called Groundhog Day, Medical Malpractice Edition! 

Speaking of those demonstration projects, the Center for Justice & Democracy has just published two new articles that warn of some serious problems with state-based litigation ?alternatives,? which both the health care law and Obama?s demonstration projects may attempt.  CJ&D Legal Director, Amy Widman, just published an article  in The Circuit, the online edition of prestigious California Law Review, which analyzes some of these proposals, concluding:

None of the litigation alternatives currently proposed enhance patient safety while ensuring that injured patients are compensated.  Limiting patients? access to courts and compensation for their injuries does nothing to increase patient safety. Reducing financial accountability on hospitals when errors occur will likely negatively impact patient safety. And allowing hospitals to control the fact-finding process surrounding medical errors also reduces transparency and, ultimately, accountability. While there is much to praise in the health care reform bill, awarding grants to reinstitute litigation ?alternatives? that have been already been tried and rejected by both courts and patients makes little sense. 

New York State has received one of those Obama grants based on a proposal that is seriously flawed, as CJ&D explains here. In sum, CJ&D finds this program to be "unethical.  It violates the legal rights of patients.  It contains provisions that could increase medical errors.  It skirts legislative authority.  It flouts basic notions of transparency.  It is riddled with inaccuracies, so much so that we are concerned that HHS has been significantly misled by this document."  

And that?s the easy stuff.  Wait til Thursday!

Full post as published by ThePopTort on September 22, 2010 (boomark / email).