The long-awaited verdict: Doctors are staying put

The Citizens Voice

The long-awaited verdict: Doctors are staying put

04/25/2004

In 1999, two significant events occurred that would reverberate with respect to medical malpractice in Pennsylvania.

The first was the release by the Institute of Medicine indicating that preventable medical errors were the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.
Also in 1999, there was a less well-known event. Private polling by the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania showed that what consumers were most concerned about was loss of medical care.
The year 2000 began a cycle of concern regarding preventable medical errors in this country and rising medical malpractice insurance rates. Instead of attacking the root cause of increasing medical malpractice insurance premiums, which were medical errors, a declining interest rate involvement, and mismanagement of the insurance industry (which at times included criminal behavior), the Medical Society and Hospital Association focused the attention of the public on lawsuits. Rumors were spread that claims payouts and lawsuits were increasing.
It had taken three years to develop the truth and get it to the public. Thanks to statistics kept by the Mcare Fund under the auspices of the Insurance Department of Pennsylvania, we have now learned that the number of doctors in the state has increased every year since 1979.
Information garnered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and other agencies has shown a rapidly declining number of lawsuits and claims payouts. At the same time, Pennsylvania's Patient Safety Authority is struggling to get started under intense pressure from the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania to dilute its efforts. Lawsuits and claims payouts are declining, even when there should be payouts for serious medical malpractice errors. Instead of the doctors benefiting by this, insurance company profits have zoomed into the multi-billion dollar range unseen even in prior insurance boom cycles.
Now, for the first time, even the Medical Society has admitted that the number of doctors in the state has increased and not declined. According to Steve Foreman of the Medical Society's Research Department, there has been an 800-physician gain since 2002.
According to The Morning Call of Allentown, in a story published April 18, "The society's statistics disprove the central point of its own aggressive lobbying campaign, one that demanded legal reforms to drive down insurance rates. It prompted lawmakers to give doctors $230 million in tax dollars annually toward their insurance premiums. Applications for that cash were due in February."
The applications gave officials a new way to track the number of physicians. The Medical Society and Hospital Association have been successful in spreading fear. 78 percent of residents say they are very or somewhat concerned that they could lose access to medical care because of malpractice insurance rates.
Chuck Moran, of the Medical Society, was quoted in The Morning Call as saying: "We never said doctors in general are leaving." The strategy has now shifted, and the Medical Society claims that specialists are leaving, but even that appears to be untrue. According to the researcher with the Medical Society, there was a decline of 16 specialists from 2002 to 2003, but the number of OB/GYN's and neurosurgeons increased during that time.
It is clear that the public has been victimized by shrill cries of misinformation into believing that doctors are leaving the state, when in fact their numbers continue to grow.
While the doctors have received hundreds of millions of dollars from cigarette tax money and the automobile CAT Fund, they continue to turn their back on any insurance reform or serious patient safety initiatives. Ironically, it is insurance reform and patient safety that are the only changes that will ever bring down medical malpractice premiums in Pennsylvania.
Nonetheless, the public and the legislature are now beginning to realize that by restricting rights and capping damages, those most seriously hurt will be further injured rather than doing anything positive for good doctors who deserve a better insurance delivery system.