Md. Lawmakers Meet On Med-Mal
By Steve Tuckey
NU Online News Service, Dec. 21, 1:16 p.m. EST?Maryland lawmakers plan to meet in a special session Monday to enact medical malpractice reform despite the fact that final agreement has yet to be reached between the Republican governor and Democratic legislative leaders.[@@]
The governor and lawmakers are said to be near agreement on how to pay for a proposed state fund that would help avoid an expected 33 percent medical malpractice insurance rate increase facing most of the state's doctors in January.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich wants to pay for the fund out of general revenue, while the legislative leadership would like to pay for it out of a premium tax on HMOs.
The Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland, which insures more than 75 percent of the state's private practice doctors, is raising rates by an average of 33 percent this year.
But industry representatives remain concerned that the details of litigation reforms the measure includes have not been made public.
"What may be a concern to us is that the legal reform measures have been too watered down," said Don Cleasby, assistant general counsel for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, Des Plaines, Ill. "There seems to be agreement between the governor and the legislative leadership on these reforms. That is surprising given the strong support for some in the legislature for the trial lawyers."
Gov. Ehrlich has advocated traditional Republican reform measures for civil litigation, but has apparently agreed to settle for more modest reforms to meet the expected objections of the trial bar and the Democrats.
An existing noneconomic damage cap of $650,000 for injury claims would remain in place for the next five years. Currently, they are set to rise $15,000 a year.
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