By Brett Sholtis February
5, 2019
A proposed rule
change is sparking debate around medical malpractice lawsuits, pitting doctors
and health systems against personal injury trial lawyers and the state Supreme
Court.
Since 2002,
attorneys have been required to file medical malpractice lawsuits in the same
county where the alleged malpractice occurred.
The proposal
recommended by the state Supreme Court’s civil procedural rules committee would
allow attorneys to file suit in other counties that have ties to the incident,
such as where a health system has offices or where a defendant lives.
The Hospital and
Health System Association of Pennsylvania opposes the
planned change, saying it would bring back a harmful practice it
calls “venue shopping,” where trial lawyers take cases to courts in
Philadelphia or Pittsburgh that have historically been more favorable to plaintiffs.
In the late 1990s
and early 2000s, venue shopping caused consumer costs to increase and reduced
patients’ access to doctors as some medical practices close or relocated, said
Asif Ilyas, a doctor and president of the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society.
Ilyas and other doctors and lawmakers gathered at the state Capitol Monday to
oppose the change.
At the media event,
orthopaedic doctor Mike Gratch of Bucks County said that in 2001, he came
within days of closing his practice because he was unable to get affordable
medical malpractice insurance. Gratch said he’s worried such costs will rise
again if the Supreme Court allows the change.
At the Pennsylvania
Association for Justice, attorney Cliff Rieders disagreed.
Rieders said the
high medical malpractice rates of the early 2000s weren’t caused by lawsuits,
but rather by “a perfect storm” of factors including unstable interest rates, a
corrupt medical malpractice insurance industry, and “a number of bad doctors that
never faced discipline.”
Rieders said in
many counties, the deck is stacked in favor of doctors. He pointed to
Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts data showing that 18 percent
of the previous year’s 1,400 malpractice suits resulted in plaintiff verdicts.
“At the same time, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority reports incidents
of serious events at about 330,000 per year.”
The proposal is in
a public comments period through Feb. 22. Opponents of the change are also
backing a Senate resolution
introduced by Republican State Sen. Lisa Baker that would
delay the motion.
After the comments
period ends, the rules committee may submit the proposal to the Supreme Court,
change it, or discontinue it, said Daniel Durst, chief counsel for the rules
committee. He said the committee’s decision will depend on a thorough review of
all public comments.
“The potential
effect of one comment should not be underestimated,” Durst said in an email.
“Entire proposals have been reconsidered based solely on a single comment.”
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