Tenn. malpractice 'in crisis'  

Docs' group would cap awards

By Richard Locker The Commercial Appeal
February 15, 2006

NASHVILLE -- Doctors say patients will suffer if Tennessee doesn't cap malpractice awards and enact other changes to cut malpractice insurance costs.

Lawyers counter that patients will suffer if legal accountability for medical errors is lessened.

For the fourth year, they'll fight it out in the Tennessee legislature.

After three failed efforts, the Tennessee Medical Association launched its latest push Tuesday with lobbying visits to the Capitol by lab-coated physicians and announcement that 40 other groups, including hospitals, insurance companies and health specialty groups, are joining the effort.

American Medical Association President J. Edward Hill of Tupelo, Miss., declared Tennessee "a state in crisis due to a deteriorating medical liability climate that is jeopardizing patients' access to care" -- the 21st state AMA has so designated.

Doctors want Tennessee lawmakers to enact:

A $250,000 ceiling for individual health providers and a $500,000 combined limit on health facilities in a single case on jury awards for "non-economic" damages in medical liability lawsuits. These include damages for pain and suffering, and are separate from awards that reimburse patients for lost wages, medical and hospital bills resulting from medical errors.

Require medical experts to certify a specific malpractice occurrence in lawsuits, or a $10,000 bond per defendant to offset doctors' costs if the case is dismissed.

A scale of fees for lawyers who represent patients suing doctors and other health providers. Instead of the current standard lawyer's fee of one-third of an award or settlement, the lawyer's percentage would drop as the award increases.

Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, and Rep. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville, will sponsor the bill. Norris said details such as the scale of fees won't be final until the bill is filed.

The AMA, which makes similar pushes in Congress and other states, says malpractice insurance premiums are rising so fast that many are ceasing high-risk practices and procedures.

TMA doctors cited such statistics as 81 of the state's 95 counties have no neurosurgeon, 47 have no emergency doctor and 42 have no obstetrician-gynecologist.

The TMA executives said they didn't have readily available data on malpractice awards in Tennessee, which has stymied their past efforts with legislators.

Allan Ramsaur, executive director of the Tennessee Bar Association, which opposes the TMA bill, said the changes would hurt victims of medical errors.

"They never make the argument that they want to lessen accountability for medical mistakes and that's the result," he said.

"A woman who loses the ability to have children because of a medical error would no longer get compensation for the loss of love for and from her own children. That's the kind of non-economic damages they're proposing to limit."

Contact Nashville bureau chief Richard Locker at (615) 255-4923.