Sep 6, 2002 By M. Bradford Grabowski For The 3 min read

HARRISBURG – The state Legislature this week began a special session and may soon begin another one. Three Bucks County legislators who are circulating a petition calling for a special legislative session dedicated to medical malpractice reform said they have close to half of the signatures needed to convene a session.

One of the lawmakers behind the petition drive believes the trio can collect the remaining signatures needed within the next month. But there’s not much time to act: the Legislature plans to adjourn in a few months and many physicians need reforms passed before then or else they may close down their practice.

“The medical malpractice reforms we put into place this spring did not go far enough,” said Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Perkasie, who proposed the special session along with Reps. Chuck McIlhinney, R-Doylestown, and Kathy Watson, R-Warminster.

“We still have doctors leaving the state and trauma centers closing,” he said. “It is time to focus on this issue without the distractions of other legislation. That is why I am supporting a special session on this issue.”

The idea is catching on. The petition began circulating two weeks ago and already has been signed by 52 House members and four senators. Every lawmaker from Bucks County, except for Rep. Anthony Melio, D-Fairless Hills, has signed it, McIlhinney said. Melio did not immediately return a call for comment.

The state Constitution requires the governor to call a special session if a majority of legislators sign a petition requesting one. That means the signatures of 102 House members and 26 senators are necessary. It would be up to Gov. Mark Schweiker to set a start date.

Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem, first used the provision earlier this summer to get Schweiker to call a special session on property tax reform. The session began on Wednesday. Every previous special session has been convened by the governor’s own initiative.

“I think the only resistance I encounter is [lawmakers asking], ‘Can we do a special second special session?'” Watson said. “You don’t want to trivialize the importance of it being a special session because there are too many of them. The reason we chose to focus on this issue was because of the deadline.”

A number of doctors’ medical malpractice insurance plans expire on Oct. 31 and Dec. 31 and they’ve been told by their insurance carriers that they won’t be able to renew their policies, Watson said. Doctors blame frivolous lawsuits and colossal jury awards for driving up insurance costs, while lawyers fault medical errors.

Despite the Legislature’s passage of major tort reforms earlier this year, the three GOP lawmakers say medical malpractice insurance rates continue to soar for physicians in certain specialties and, unless it becomes more affordable, physicians will leave Pennsylvania to practice in states with cheaper rates.

Since 1997, the state’s major malpractice insurers increased their rates between 80 percent and 147 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Medical Society. The society has asked its 19,000 members to urge their local lawmakers to sign the petition. McIlhinney believes the doctors’ lobbying could help him get the signatures needed to call a special session.

“I think it’s very important that [lawmakers who haven’t signed] hear from their constituents,” he said. “It takes a while to get the signatures … I don’t think it’s going to take three months but I’d give it at least the month of September.”

Although special sessions only occur occasionally, this wouldn’t be the first time two special sessions have occurred in the same year. The Legislature held two special sessions in 1972 and three special sessions in 1966.