About 80 fayette doctors join insurance protest
About 80 Fayette County physicians are closing their offices in a statewide protest starting today to draw public attention to skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums that have caused some doctors to leave the state. Some are meeting locally with state legislators this week and many are joining doctors from across the state in a trip to Harrisburg next Tuesday to urge lawmakers to set a $250,000 on non-economic damages from malpractice lawsuits.
Leading the county effort are Dr. Lawrence Glad, an ob/gyn and president of the Fayette County Medical Society, and Dr. Owen Nelson, an orthopedic surgeon, who lost two doctors from his practice because of the soaring cost of malpractice insurance premiums.
Glad said he is meeting with state Sen. Richard Kasunic (D-Dunbar) this week and many local physicians have planned a bus trip to the state capital on Tuesday.
Glad, who runs Laurel Highlands ob/gyn, but stopped delivering babies in November because of increasing malpractice insurance costs, said patients support the effort.
“The fact is we’re getting support from our patients,” Glad said. “I think this (protest) will make a difference.”
As many as 10,000 Pennsylvania doctors have canceled elective surgeries, office visits and routine care during the protest, which will run from today through Friday. Some closed their offices Tuesday and some will remain closed May 5 and 6.
The names of 58 physicians participating in the protest will appear in an ad this week in the Herald-Standard. About 20 other doctors will join the protest, but declined to place their names in the ad, Glad said.
Uniontown Hospital, which supports the protest, is prepared to handle emergency cases and routine care for people unwilling to wait until next week to see their regular doctors, according to Jim Proud, hospital vice president of human resources and marketing.
“We fully support their effort to bring attention to this matter,” Proud said.
Glad brought national attention to the state’s malpractice crisis in a Tuesday morning interview with Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America.” Glad and one of his associates, Dr. Christine Wilson, who is 13 weeks pregnant, were interviewed via satellite from their Hopwood office.
Glad said without natal care available locally, Wilson drives 40 minutes to see her doctor.
He said he hopes the media attention helps generate support for the cap and a national tort and malpractice reform bill pending in Congress.
Glad and Proud said expensive malpractice premiums in Pennsylvania increase doctors’ operating costs, which drive doctors to other states and are passed along to patents’ health insurers.
“It’s making it difficult for patients to see doctors – that’s what it boils down to,” Glad said.
Proud said malpractice premiums paid by hospitals in the state make it difficult to recruit new physicians, purchase new equipment and hire other staff.
“Every dollar we spend there we can’t spend on new technology and on employees,” Proud said.
The Politically Active Physicians Association said 1,100 doctors have already left the state due to malpractice insurance costs.
That group and the Pennsylvania Medical Society planned next week’s trip to Harrisburg.
Proud said patients are beginning to understand the malpractice crisis their doctors are facing and support the protest.
Glad said the patients he has seen this week support the protest and many have taken pamphlets that contain the phone numbers of local legislators.
Gov. Rendell is “disappointed” by the protest, according to spokesperson Kate Philips. Rendell believes patients are victims in the protest, she said.
Rendell extended a delay in doctors’ payments into to the state’s Mcare fund, which is supplemental malpractice insurance, through July as a short-term solution to the crisis, Philips said.
She said the governor will soon come deliver on a campaign promise to provide a long-term solution to the problem, but Philips declined to offer any details of his plan.
She said the cap sought by the doctors might solve one symptom, but does not address the entire problem.
Glad said the protest is needed now to help prevent any more doctors from leaving the state.
He also said doctors have been struggling with ways to hold premium costs down since the 1970s, but they have continued to rise.
Nelson, who couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday, said earlier that he has been unable to recruit new physicians to replace the two who left because of the high cost of malpractice insurance in Pennsylvania. He said each week he has to turn away patients that he doesn’t have time to treat.
He added that the office closings was necessary to force the state legislature in taking action to solve the problem.