Doctors Praise ‘Bold’ Plan

From the Charleston Daily Mail, January 9, 2003, Thursday
Copyright 2003 Charleston Newspapers

Physicians today were reveling in Gov. Bob Wise’s proposed tort reform plan, calling it novel, encouraging, bold and even radical.

Wise’s bill would supply four of the five sticking points the doctors’ own proposal advocates in an effort to contain spiraling medical malpractice insurance costs. But it does not limit plaintiff attorney fees.

“It’s obvious the governor is feeling the pulse pf the people of West Virginia,” Dr. Douglas McKinney, president of the West Virginia State Medical Association, said. “The governor has made a start. Now he has to convince legislators.”

Dr. Bob D’Alessandri, dean of the school of medicine at West Virginia University, predicted that, if Wise’s measure passes, medical graduates would want to stay in the state. Now only about 40 percent do so.

The president of the West Virginia Hospital Association went so far as to say no other U.S. governor has endorsed such a comprehensive answer to malpractice insurance problems.

“If this is passed, I think we’ll have a whole lot of physicians come to West Virginia,” Steven Summer said.

Meanwhile, plaintiff attorneys say reducing the rate of medical malpractice is the only way to reduce the number of medical malpractice cases in courtrooms. And capping non-economic damages doesn’t work, they say.

“While the sliding scale proposed by Governor Wise is perhaps not as grossly unfair as other proposals, the reality is that a sliding cap already exists in every state in the country – the American jury,” said a prepared statement issued by Consumer Attorneys of West Virginia.”

But hospital administrators, such as Dan Lauffer at St. Francis and David Ramsey at Charleston Area Medical Center praised Wise’s proposals.

So did Kanawha County’s newest lawmaker, Delegate Dan Foster, a Democrat.

“He went farther than I anticipated in terms of dealing with civil justice reform,” said Foster, a surgeon-turned-administrator at CAMC.

Dr. E. Phillips Pollack, a Wheeling orthopedic surgeon, described Wise’s plan as excellent, compelling and demonstrating “terrific leadership.”

“He said three buzzwords – caps, joint and several liability and collateral source rule,” Pollack said.

The dual cornerstone of Wise’s bill – which some predict will move quickly through the House of Delegates, at least – focuses on reforms to the tort system and a $ 20 million fund to help physicians pay part of their insurance costs for possible future claims.

Wise’s bill would:

n Cap awards for pain and suffering at $ 250,000 or three times the amount of economic loss up to $ 350,000. But in more serious cases, the cap would be $ 500,000.

n Strengthen requirements for expert testimony.

n Protect physicians from paying more than their share of the total damages.

n Prohibit a plaintiff from seeking recovery for economic losses already paid by another source.

n Limit liability for trauma care to $ 500,000 as long as the care was not reckless or willful.

What Wise omitted from his plan – limiting plaintiff attorney fees in favor of higher payments to injured patients – didn’t surprise McKinney or Dr. David Avery, a Parkersburg family practitioner and past president of the state physician association.

Avery watched the speech with about 100 other physicians and others in Parkersburg. He said while Wise’s words encouraged the physicians, there wasn’t a lot of clapping.

“We’ve heard promises before,” Avery said. “We’ll see what happens.”

While physician insurance problems seemed to dominate concerns in the medical community, doctors said they were pleased with Wise’s proposal to jack up the cigarette tax to 55 cents, to drop blood alcohol concentration for drivers and to increase all-terrain vehicle safety, said Dr. Kenneth Wright, president of the Kanawha Medical Society.

Dr. Charles Vance, president of the Osteopathic Medicine Society of West Virginia and a member of Wise’s medical malpractice advisory panel, said any doctor who has been dealing with insurance problems for a time would be pleased with the speech.

“I was really impressed,” Vance said. “It was sincere. I feel in my heart we’ve got to do something about this.”

Reporter Jim Wallace contributed to this story.