Local health care providers call Rendell’s malpractice insurance proposal a good first step
When Dr. Lawrence Glad and his two colleagues at Laurel Highlands OB/GYN found out that their medical liability insurance premiums would cost a total of $400,000 this year, they were faced with two options: either pack up and move to another state or stop delivering babies. Not willing to leave Fayette County, they chose to stop providing obstetric services as of Nov. 1. Patients are being referred to other local obstetricians or doctors in Pittsburgh or Greensburg.
“We’re doing the best we can and we are providing care for our patients, but we have to keep getting the message out that a patient’s choice of and access to care is being denied,” Glad said.
He applauds Gov.-elect Ed Rendell’s proposal to cut physician payments to the state malpractice insurance fund and force the state’s health insurers to make a one-time payment into the fund, which helps pay court damages to patients who have been injured by a doctor’s negligence.
But he cautions that the proposal is just a Band-Aid for an ever-growing crisis facing physicians and patients throughout the state.
“This does not address the problem in the long term and does not address the need for caps on medical liability suits,” he said. “This is a finger-in-the-dike measure to stop the flood of doctors from leaving.”
Glad, director of OB/GYN at Uniontown Hospital, said if he were practicing in California, he would pay approximately $46,000 annually for malpractice insurance as opposed to the $135,000 bill he was saddled with last year. He said the Rendell proposal only delays the inevitable loss of doctors and services that people in West Virginia have faced this week.
He said the only way to clearly reform medical malpractice in Pennsylvania is by adopting a cap on “non-economic damages,” known to most people as punitive damages for pain and suffering. Glad said such a change at the state level would require a change to the state Constitution, a process that could take two to three years.
Glad said doctors and patients cannot afford to wait that long, and he is putting faith in federal legislation sponsored by U.S. Reps. John Murtha and James Greenwood. That legislation, called the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Health Care (HEALTH) Act, would, among other things, enact caps on damages and impose time limits on filing of lawsuits.
Across the nation, a dozen states are facing a similar medical malpractice crisis, Glad said, and President Bush is in support of the legislation, which the House has already passed. The doctor encourages people to contact U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter and have them vote for the legislation when it arrives at the Senate.
While he is hopeful that change is on the horizon, he is not optimistic that the change will come this year. He said the state Legislature and outgoing administration waited too long to take action, noting that Gov. Mark Schweiker recently sent surveys to physicians about the issue that should have been sent almost three years ago.
“The state is far behind in looking at the needs of Pennsylvania’s patients, and it is out of sync with what is happening across the country,” Glad said. “I hope we catch up before people are without access.”
Raoul Walsh, CEO of Greene County Memorial Hospital in Waynesburg, said Rendell’s proposal is a “good gesture” and was a step in the right direction.
“He is acknowledging it and addressing it as a paramount issue, but the next step will be critical,” Walsh said.
He said Rendell’s decision to form a task force to examine the issue will provide him with several viewpoints and will show the people of the state how serious he is about working to solve the problem. The solutions that the task force develops will be met with much support and opposition, but Walsh said that, for the moment, Rendell’s announcement gives him confidence the matter will not be forgotten in the new administration.
“We’re at milepost number one, and there are still 99 miles to go,” Walsh said.
Jim Proud, vice president at Uniontown Hospital, said he is cautiously optimistic that Rendell’s proposal is the first step in a process to avert a situation like the one still under way in West Virginia.
“I think we’re very hopeful that it’s more than a short-term solution, because what Pennsylvania needs is a long-term solution to put us on a level playing field with other states in the nation,” Proud said. “The table is slanted, and physicians in Pennsylvania are at a disadvantage when it comes to affordability and accessibility of medical malpractice insurance.”
Uniontown Hospital felt the effects of the malpractice insurance crisis, he said, as several orthopedic surgeons left to practice in other states and Glad and his colleagues stopped delivering babies two months ago. Proud said the malpractice issue is making it tougher for the hospital to recruit new doctors to come to Uniontown to replace those who have left.
Rendell’s initial proposal has some hurdles to clear, and appeasing the insurance carriers will not be an easy process, Proud said, but any action taken to alleviate the problem is a step in the right direction.
“It’s a double-edged sword and both edges are the bad side,” he said. “I’m hopeful this can be corrected before something bad happens to somebody in Scranton or somewhere else trying to find a doctor to deliver her baby.”
Ian Rawson, president of the Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania, said the organization supports any effort to provide relief from skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance rates, but he questions whether now is the right time to ask insurers to cough up more money.
“The general concept is good, but I’m not sure this is the right economic time for it,” Rawson said. “Our hope is that there will be very fast action at the federal level to put a cap on non-economic damages.”
Rawson said Pennsylvania rivals only New York with the highest number of settlements over $1 million, a fact that he said has contributed to the crisis. He said the council, which represents 90 hospitals from Uniontown north to Erie and as far east as State College, will aggressively pursue the passage of legislation to avert the crisis sometime in 2003.
Glad, president of the Fayette County Medical Society, said he hopes Rendell sees this situation as a “call to arms,” and he hopes the governor and others in his administration will work to address the problem. He said he hopes the patients he has sent to other obstetricians in the region will not be forced to make the same decision he was faced with two months ago.
“What’s more important to people, your health or the legal system?” he said.