...Brian Ardizzoni Michael Neil English 1301, Composition 1 25 November 2012 Medical Malpractice For nearly forty years, tort reform constantly becomes an increasingly controversial issue affecting the medical community, the legal community and most of all, the victims of some very unfortunate accidents. Tort reform refers to laws passed on a state-by-state basis which place limits or caps on the type or amount of damages awarded in personal injury lawsuits. Those who advocate medical malpractice tort reform believe limitations should be set on the amount of damages a plaintiff or injured party can be rewarded by the court. These advocates usually include medical professionals and insurance companies. Their argument is that too many frivolous lawsuits lead to high malpractice insurance, the increasing cost of medical care and a burden on the taxpayers whose tax dollars absorb the extravagant litigation costs for these claims. They believe doctors will eventually be unable to practice medicine due to costly malpractice insurance premiums which may leave many Americans unable to obtain much-needed healthcare. In the past, as the rate of malpractice suits began to grow, so did the rate of malpractice insurance. This ended up having a dire impact on the medical profession. For one thing, many qualified doctors ended up leaving their practices and focusing more on preventative medicine. In other words, they...
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...estimates of medical liability system costs—including settlements, legal and administrative costs and defensive medicine—range from $55.6 billion annually to $200 billion annually (NCSL, 2011). Medical malpractice reform, also known as tort reform, includes strategies to limit medical malpractice costs, deter medical errors, and ensure that patients who are injured by medical negligence are fairly compensated. Tort reform has the potential to reduce health care expenditures by reducing the number of malpractice claims, the average size of malpractice awards and tort liability system administrative costs. It also may lead to fewer instances of defensive medicine where physicians order tests and procedures not primarily to ensure the health of the patient but as a safeguard against possible medical malpractice liability (NCSL, 2011). Medical malpractice reform proponents argue that tort reforms—such as limiting malpractice awards, tightening statutes of limitations for filing claims, increasing expert witness standards, and screening cases before they go to trial—not only reduce overall medical care spending but also increase access to care (NCSL, 2011). Strategies to improve malpractice claims include limiting awards; placing stricter limits on statutes of limitations; establishing minimum qualifications for expert witnesses; periodic payment provisions; modified Collateral Source Rules; Attorney Contingent fee limits; and other medical Liability related reforms such as patient...
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...Q: 2 What interest groups favor of Tort Reform and why? Proponents or advocates of Tort Reform support maximizing tort liability because of the ripple effects excessive damages and legal fees have on industries and, by extension, taxpayers. Prices for services and products and products are impacted because of these ripple effects and more often than not make them costlier for consumption. Proponents of tort reform like doctors, hospital and insurance groups argue for reform while the powerful plaintiff bar and certain consumer rights groups argue against it. Arguments for tort reform generally involve medical malpractice torts along with product liability. Cases involving medical malpractice or product liability usually result in heavy penalties for the party rendering services or product. There are direct and indirect costs involved with these penalties. Tort liability has resulted in price increase for many products, for example, stepladders now cost 30% more due to this factor (Huber 1988; Discussion 1989, p. 2237).This may indirectly result in useful products/services not even making to the market. Insurance companies covering tort liability for medical mal practice or product liability have an economic interest in having a cap on the amount of penalties being awarded. It is in their economic interest in maximizing tort liability. Since insurance companies do not know the level of risk they need to insure for such services or products, they cannot...
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...Medical Malpractice Tort Reform in the Healthcare Industry Medical malpractice reform, also known as tort reform, includes strategies to limit medical malpractice costs, deter medical errors and ensure that patients who are injured by medical negligence are fairly compensated. Tort reform has the potential to reduce health care expenditures by reducing the number of malpractice claims, the average size of malpractice awards and tort liability system administrative costs (Medical Malpractice Reform, 2011). Since the 1970s, medical malpractice has been a controversial social issue, which has caused physicians to have increasing concerns about the large number of lawsuits and the negative connotations that tend to go along with them. Physicians have started pushing for legal reforms to decrease the large monetary awards for damages whereas tort attorneys have argued that the negligence suits are an effective way of compensating the victims fairly and forcing the medical professions to follow a proper standard of care (Pozgar, 2013). An article from the Journal of Patient Safety estimates that between 210,000 to 400,000 people die every year in the U.S. from hospital medical errors and 1 in 14 U.S. doctors face a malpractice lawsuit every year (Corapi, 2014). Physicians and healthcare providers argue that the millions of dollars that are awarded in damages increase the cost of healthcare by passing this cost onto the consumer in the form of higher insurance premiums and...
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...1Q. I chose the following two professional medical insurance companies in Florida that provide malpractice insurance: Danna-Gracey Inc. and OROS Risk Solutions LLC. The headquarters of Danna-Gracey Inc. is located in Delray Beach, FL with other offices located in Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Pensacola. The services that are related to malpractice insurance are medical professional liability, allied health professional liability, healthcare facilities professional liability and vicarious liability. The company offers higher limits on malpractice coverage up to $ 3 Million or more upon a request, regulatory and investigatory coverage, and employment practices liability, cyber liability protection coverage and medical directorship coverage. The headquarters of OROS Risk Solution LLC is located in Orlando, FL. The law office offers the following services related to medical malpractice insurance: medical professional liability insurance, hospital professional liability insurance, fiduciary liability insurance, provider excess liability insurance, cyber liability...
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...HB4: The 2003 Tort Reform in Texas Tricia Guzman MGT6106.E1 – Law Applications for Managers Amberton University Professor David Campbell May 15, 2015 HB4: The 2003 Tort Reform in Texas Texas is known as a tort reform state. Tort reform is essentially any attempt to limit someone’s rights to seek redress in a court of law for a civil wrong. The goal of tort reform in Texas is to create and maintain a fair, honest, and predictable civil justice system that balances the rights of both plaintiffs and defendants. House Bill 4 (HB4) was enacted to curtail frivolous lawsuits, limit runaway jury awards, and reduce malpractice liability insurance premiums in 2003. Depending on whom you agree with, Texas tort reform has helped in some areas, but also hurt in other areas. The Need for Reform Prior to 2003, Texas was known as one of the nation’s “judicial hellholes.” The state’s system of justice allowed for laws to be applied arbitrarily. Enforcement of personal property rights and contracts varied depending on which local court had the case. Furthermore, certain counties had bad reputations regardless of the court. Judicial outcomes often depended on which attorney was before which judge in which county (Nixon, 2013). The following examples show the mess of the Texas tort system: * One out of every four doctors had a malpractice claim filed against them each year. * 85 percent of medical malpractice claims failed, but cost more than $50,000 to defend. ...
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...Getting America To The Top Through Healthcare Reform Chelsea Secoolish Microeconomics BU224 December 2, 2012 The main objective of a market economy is to reach efficiency. Market failure is defined as “the individual pursuit of self-interest which makes society worse off, or, an inefficient market”, (Krugman, Wells, 2009). Misallocated resources, unnecessary medical care, and for-profit insurance companies all play a part in America’s failing healthcare system. As one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world with plentiful resources to boot, 40 to 50 million uninsured citizens are unacceptable (Boseley, 2012). Our government needs to step in and reform the system, but exactly how to accomplish this task has become a national issue. In addition to the debate of adopting a national healthcare system (Obamacare,) reforming the Medical Liability System, or MLS, could very well be the answer to providing healthcare for each and every United States citizen. Optimizing promising practices, ensuring patient safety, and reducing healthcare costs are all ways to effectively bring our country back up to speed in what should be a rewarding and lucrative experience for both patients and their physicians. With the United States ranking 37th out of 191countries total in terms of health care, it is not surprising that there are millions of Americans uninsured, but even more alarming is the fact that there are 38 million people in the with inadequate health...
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...Medical Malpractice How is the Standard of Care in Medical Malpractice Applied in the State of Texas? Any medical professional who actively participates in the treatment and care of patients has an obligation and duty to adhere to a professionally established standard of care. When a professional fails to comply with the standard of care, the results can be devastating for the patient and the family. This can result in medical malpractice cases against the medical care provider(s). There is no medical definition for “standard of care” although the term is firmly established in law and is defined as “the caution that a reasonable person in similar circumstances would exercise in providing care to a patient” (The Dictionary.com, 2007). To the physicians, the “standard of care” is the diagnostic and treatment process that a doctor should practice for a given illness, patient, and set of circumstances. The term “standard of care” represents an essential component of an action in medical malpractice in proof that the doctor in question failed to provide the required standard of care under the circumstances (Sullivan, W., 2003). Medical malpractice is a broad term generally used to describe any treatment, lack of treatment, or other departure from accepted standards of medical care, health care, or departure in safety on the part of a health care provider that causes and/or results in harm to a patient. In law, medical malpractice is...
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...that can be awarded in certain types of court cases (Lipthrott 2005). Although state and federal statutes define some aspects of tort law, contemporary tort law remains defined by judicial decisions. Tort can be an excellent vehicle for viewing the nature of the common law, and for observing how a given body of law evolves daily. The basic objectives of tort law are preservation of peace between individual by providing a substitute for retaliation; culpability-to find fault for wrongdoing; deterrence-to discourage the wrongdoer (tort-feasor) from committing future torts; and compensation- to indemnify the injured person of wrongdoing. There are three basic categories of tort law: negligent tort, intentional tort, and torts where strict liability is assessed regardless of fault. There are two main differences between...
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...Greenstone, 2009). Malpractice is one type of tort; tort reform is passed at a state level in regard to the laws regarding malpractice. The state can develop laws that cap the amount of reimbursement a judge can award for punitive damages a patient or family can acquire for damages in relation to malpractice. Tort reform, is an aspect that can attract physicians to specific states based on how friendly the practice environment is for health care providers. Tort reform aims to limit the liabilities of the wrongdoer. Those supporting tort reform claim that such changes will reduce frivolous lawsuits therefore reducing the cost of insurance (Simon et al., 2009). Tort reform can put tighter constraints on medical malpractice lawsuits taken to court, opposed to those that are dismissed. Essentially medical malpractice is, negligence or error committed by a health care professional where there is harm caused to the patient. Reductions of malpractice insurance would serve to reduce the cost of health care. Each state sets its own requirements regarding what is required for practitioners to have for insurance coverage to cover the practitioner for any lawsuits charge on them for malpractice. This paper will review two different states and why they have reasonable malpractice procedures. Minnesota Provisions In the state of Minnesota the wronged patient, or his or her family, is limited to an award of $400,000, from either the medical professionals or institutes, who showed a deliberate...
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...Tort Reform All humans on this earth, whether they live in a crowded city, a sparsely populated farming community, a developed or developing nation or a small tribe in the rainforests of the Amazon, have some way by which their civilization is led and regulated for the safety and comfort of its inhabitants. People living together in near proximity need some sort of social control to regulate conduct and relations be it by laws or morals or both. Ivan Nuy, an author who developed the Social Control Theory in 1958, proposed that there are four types of social control: Internal, Indirect, Control with Needs Satisfaction and Direct. Social Control Theory proposes that people's relationships, commitments, values, norms, and moral beliefs encourage them not to break the law. Thus, if moral codes are internalized and individuals are tied into, (their) community, they will voluntarily limit their propensity to commit deviant acts. [ (Nuy, 1958) ] Law is needed for when comfort, morals and disapproval fail to prevent undesirable acts against people in a society. In our country’s system, we have two main types of classifications for justice, civil law and criminal law. Criminal law, under public law, covers laws and regulations that aim to protect all members of the society. Its emphasis is on punishment. Criminal offenders are prosecuted by government officials, who must provide “the burden of proof” to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable, doubt, usually a district...
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...Tort reform refers to the proposed changes in the common law civil justice systems that would reduce tort litigation and/or damages. Tort liability imposes significant cost on society. In 1991, US has spent a total of $131.6 billion on tort litigation, which is approximately 2.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP)1 Studies have shown that the citizens pay a tort tax of $1200 per individual or nearly $5000 for a family of four. 2 Today, tort reform is a contentious political issue and its advocates propose procedural limits on the ability to file claims and capping awards of damages. The cost of healthcare in the US is very expensive and is rising rapidly. Tort is one of the main reason this is happening. Tort pay out usually comes from the insurance companies, which eventually raise the insurance cost, and the cost is incurred to everyone paying insurance. In addition, the current medical liability system does not effectively compensate patients from medical negligence nor improve patient safety by addressing system errors. 93% of physicians have started to practice defensive medicine3 in order to avoid getting into lawsuits and this has adversely affected the physician-patient relationship. Physician eliminate complex procedures or procedures that seem litigious. These behaviors have strained and limit physicians to their scope of work, which ends up 1 Kirk W. Dillard, Illinois' Landmark Tort Reform: The Sponsor's Policy Explanation, 27 LOY. U. CHI. L.J. 805, 809 nn.1, 16-17...
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...issues surrounding medical professional liability in America today? What are the arguments for and against tort reform in U.S. health care? In America today, medical professionals are facing more dramatic liability claims than at any point in history from patients and tort lawyers. From increased demands by malpractice insurance carriers to higher standards and quality of care criteria, medical professionals are under extreme scrutiny which makes the art of practicing medicine very difficult. As pressure continues to mount in America both by politicians and social groups how are demanding a restructuring and overhaul of the current system, medical professionals will have to be very diligent about meeting the new standards expected in healthcare of they will face lawsuits and tort actions that could destroy their careers (Qazi, 2012). The healthcare debate in the United States has been dominating the industry since President Obama passed key legislation that will forever change the American medical system. Arguments against healthcare reform stem largely from the provisions and laws that are being proposed by Obamacare. The restructured proposals have drawn many opponents, especially in the healthcare and insurance industry. Primarily, the argumentative claim is that the costs to practice medicine and insure all patients will not be sustainable. Additionally, the increase in the amount of patients that will flood the system will demand an increase in medical insurance premium...
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...Providers will experience an increased burden in many aspects of their medical profession including new legal practicing liabilities, less autonomy, administrative encumbrances, shortages of primary care physicians, and political infringement (Horton, Hollier 2012). The provider is to maintain high quality of care while the ACA’s agenda is cost and quantity over quality. The Affordable Care Act is the largest piece of legislative reform in American history relating to health care. The impact to our economy on many levels of scale and our constitutional rights are all being questioned and debated without a definitive answer to long term reality of its implications. Reform is necessitous to the continuance of providing care, controlling fraudulent activities and waste, as well as, exploring new innovative ways to maintain a high level of quality services within the legalities of our legislative branch. The balance of these aspects have been challenging and perplexing in materializing the reforms into fruition. The concentration during reform has been on quantity of the insured population, effects on businesses as in tax benefits, taxation, and the CMS. The ACA, legislatively is in the beginning stages to reform health care. Thus far the application of reform are in disarray as it is on the operating table cut wide open and bleeding out, without a surgeon in the room. The complexity has the medical society and American constituents confused and anxious of its impact...
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...Foundation survey found that only about 5% of physicians considered medical errors as a primary healthcare concern.[1] Congress, however, did not share the physicians’ nonchalant attitude and gave the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) an estimated $50 million towards minimizing medical errors.[2] Senator James Jeffords (R-VT) of the 107th Congress introduced the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (S.2590) to the Senate on June 4, 2002[3] attempting to improve the safety of patients and “…reduce the incidence of events that adversely effect patient safety.”[4] In 2003, President Bush signed into law the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act (P.L 108-173).[5] A section of this law authorized AHRQ to research effectiveness in treatments in order to set a guideline to improve the quality of care.[6] John Eisenberg helped build this program that generates summaries that can help provide health care providers with evidence-based practices that help improve quality of care delivered.[7] Realizing the importance of this research to quality of care, the president signed the Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1) into law on February 17, 2009, providing additional funding to continue effective research.[8] This helps to demonstrate the IOM’s report effectively indicated to Congress that legislation revamping was needed in order to help not only reduce medical errors and improve overall health care quality, but also the...
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