State Ranks 2nd in Multiple-Payout Doctors

From the Charleston Gazette January 17, 2003, Friday
Copyright 2003 Charleston Newspapers

West Virginia ranks second in the country in the percentage of doctors who repeatedly have settled or lost malpractice lawsuits, according to a national consumer group.

Since 1990, one in 10 state doctors made two or more payouts to alleged victims of medical malpractice, according to Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen. Only Pennsylvania had a higher rate of physicians making multiple payouts.

Those physicians with multiple payouts were responsible for 61 percent of the cases that were settled or where the plaintiff won a verdict, Wolfe said.

“A relatively small percentage of docs are causing injury and death to patients, and not being disciplined for it,” he said.

Public Citizen is a Washington-based consumer and advocacy group founded by former presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

Wolfe bases his numbers on an analysis of the National Practitioners Data Bank. Doctors are required to report malpractice cases to the federal government, which maintains the database.

Sen. Evan Jenkins, D-Cabell, said the data bank is not trustworthy. Jenkins also is executive director of the state Medical Association.

“A congressional report found numerous errors with the data bank itself and called for significant change,” he said. “I’m not sure analyzing the numbers from that flawed data can serve a purpose.”

Wolfe said the data bank was not perfect but was the best existing indicator of how many malpractice claims had been filed and how much money paid out.

Jenkins also criticized Public Citizen and other groups based outside West Virginia for what he called interference into state affairs.

“This is a well-timed effort to derail the Legislature’s and the governor’s efforts to enact meaningful reform to restore access to care in our state,” he said.

Public Citizen released its data Wednesday, the day before President Bush announced his own national plan to reform the medical malpractice system, including caps on awards and other tort reforms.

Wolfe called on the state Board of Medicine to be more aggressive in disciplining doctors. He said the board is ignoring doctors who make multiple payouts.

Seven state doctors had 10 or more payouts, but only one had been disciplined by the state Board of Medicine, he said.

Dr. Steven A. Artz, a Charleston endocrinologist, had another possible explanation – doctors being encouraged to settle suits that they would rather fight.

“I think the system is awry. I know some cases where doctors said they wanted to defend it, but insurance companies forced them to settle,” he said.