Gregg to Introduce Malpractice Legislation
By Daniel Remin
WASHINGTON — Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., highlighting what he said was the need for medical liability reform, said yesterday he soon will introduce a bill that will address the “over-litigious situation in the area of medical care.”
Speaking at a health-care conference here sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups, Gregg, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said that doctors are constantly being sued and lawyers are collecting large amounts of money from the cases. “Almost 50 percent of the damages won in court systems go to the attorneys, which is outrageous,” Gregg said.
“It’s now become easier in this country to sue a doctor than to get an appointment with a doctor,” Gregg said.
“We know for example that trial lawyers look on doctors as their personal ATM machines,” he said. “As a result, doctors are fearing practicing the medicine which they train for and which our citizens need in order to benefit from.”
Because of the high chance doctors will get sued, many are practicing defensive medicine, which means they order extra tests to prevent the risk of misdiagnosing their patient and a possible ensuing lawsuit.
“We know that there is a huge cost of the system that is not the cost of litigation. The cost of the unintended consequence of excessive testing, excessive medical regimes being put in place, the practice of defensive medicine is driving up the cost of medicine erratically,” Gregg said.
To address these issues, along with others involving medical malpractice, Gregg said he plans to introduce legislation that will include caps on punitive damages and on suffering, as well as on attorneys’ fees. Despite the apparent need for these reforms, Gregg said, the big question is whether the bill will pass.
“We all know that we’re going up against a very entrenched, very powerful special interest, which is the American trial lawyers,” Gregg said, referring to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
According to Gregg, the group is powerful and has “significant leverage,” especially with Democratic lawmakers.
(Daniel Remin is an intern with the Boston University Washington News Service.)
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
