Florida Med Mal Trade-off May Be Near
NU Online News Service, August 12, 2:26 p.m. EDT?After much political wrangling and three special legislative sessions, a compromise on medical malpractice reform legislation in Florida appears to be near.
The reforms will probably be finalized and voted on by Thursday or Friday of this week, said William Stander, government affairs representative for the southeast region of the Downers Grove, Ill.-based Alliance of American Insurers. Mr. Stander said the reforms are "expected to pass," but are not a sure thing.
Under the proposed reforms, non-economic (pain-and-suffering) damages against any one doctor are capped at $500,000. This cap can be "pierced" to $1 million for certain enumerated catastrophic injuries, including death, paralysis and blindness.
For hospitals, non-economic damages would be capped at $750,000, and that cap could be pierced to $1.5 million for catastrophic injuries.
There would also be a cap of $150,000 per defendant for non-economic damages stemming from emergency room care, with a limit of $300,000 in non-economic damages for two or more defendants, such as if two doctors or a doctor and the hospital are sued.
Mr. Stander noted that the reforms would make it more difficult to sue an insurer for bad faith if the insurer offers to settle for the policy limit within 210 days after the claim is filed.
None of these measures guarantee that one of the primary purposes of reforms?reducing doctor and hospital malpractice insurance premiums?will be accomplished, Mr. Stander pointed out. But the reforms do include a rate freeze through January 2004, so at least premiums will not go up during that period.
While Jacksonville-based FPIC Insurance Group Inc., Florida's largest malpractice carrier, had indicated that it would reduce rates by 20 percent if a $250,000 cap was passed, Mr. Stander noted that the reduction is probably "off the table" now because the proposed reforms include a higher cap.
As for the political machinations leading up to the hoped-for compromise, Mr. Stander said that "everyone came to a line in the sand. The Republicans needed to get past this issue and move on."
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