Medical malpractice reform on hold

Senate OK's suit limits; House votes next year

By Daniel Connolly, Commercial Appeal
June 6, 2007

With Tennessee's legislative session set to end this week or next week, a bill to overhaul the state's medical malpractice laws appears dead. Last-minute action is still possible, but one of the bill's main supporters is already looking ahead to next year.

"As a practical matter, it's over for this year," said state Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, who has worked closely with doctors' groups to try to make it harder for patients to bring claims of medical errors against health care workers.

A bill he supported passed the Senate earlier this year. The bill would need only House approval to become law next year, since 2007 and 2008 are part of the same General Assembly.

"We're halfway home, and we made great progress on trying to cut down on frivolous lawsuits," Norris said.

For years, doctors have pushed to make it harder for patients to file lawsuits for alleged medical mistakes and to limit damages when they win.

They say most medical malpractice lawsuits are frivolous, which drives up overall health care costs and physicians' insurance rates, making it harder for them to serve patients.

Trial lawyers have opposed efforts to make medical malpractice laws more favorable to doctors, saying that the threat of lawsuits helps protect patients from medical mistakes.

Both sides have a financial interest in the issue. Malpractice lawsuits cost doctors money and can mean fees for attorneys.

The groups have battled for years through proxies in the legislature, and so far the doctors' efforts have failed. But the hard lines softened this year as the parties involved held a series of meetings to seek a compromise.

The doctors dropped their demand for a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice jury awards. They accepted a compromise bill with several new provisions, including a requirement that attorneys filing malpractice lawsuits sign a certificate of good faith that they had consulted with a medical expert who confirmed the patient had a valid case.

The state Senate passed the compromise bill on a 30-0 vote in April, but its prospects have been shaky since early last month, when House lawmakers rejected a controversial amendment that trial lawyers wanted. It would have made it easier for medical experts from outside the area to testify in Tennessee cases.

The bill's sponsor sent it back to the House Judiciary Committee and it hasn't advanced since.

Doctors took another blow when the State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Co., an organization that provides malpractice coverage for Tennessee's doctors, reduced rates for many specialties. Though the insurer also raised rates for some specialities, doctors as a whole are expected to pay 4 percent less in premiums this year than they did last year, said Steve Williams, the insurer's president.

The trial attorneys said the premium cut called into doubt doctors' claims that they face a crisis of malpractice lawsuits.

"The fact that they have substantially decreased premiums and that jury verdicts are not out of control, and that lawsuits are not out of control, shows there's not a problem in Tennessee," said Mary Littleton, a lobbyist for the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association.

Russ Miller, senior vice president of the Tennessee Medical Association, a doctors' group, said the premium decrease follows years of increases and doesn't mean that the problem of frivolous medical lawsuits is over.

"There's always the eye in the middle of the hurricane, too," he said.

With passage of the compromise bill doubtful before lawmakers finish the session, the sides will likely continue to talk, he said.

"I think there will be a lot of meetings over the summer and continued negotiations as the trial lawyers try to pull the bill closer to their liking and medicine tries to hold the bill where it is now," he said.

Rep. Rob Briley, D-Nashville, has been a key player in the malpractice debate on the side of attorneys. He said he doubts proposals to cap jury awards will resurface next year and said the next debate may center on how to reduce malpractice insurance premiums, such as giving the best doctors lower rates. And he said lawmakers should explore ways to encourage doctors to disclose errors and offer small amounts of compensation early on to avoid expensive lawsuits later.

"There's a whole lot of things that we can do in the malpractice area relating to both patient safety and insurance premiums that don't involve restricting patients' rights," he said.