How To Fix the Medical Liability System

NEWSWEEK?s Jennifer Barrett spoke with Dr. Donald J. Palmisano, president-elect of the American Medical Association, about the current crisis and what physicians hope can be done to fix it.

NEWSWEEK: How serious is the medical malpractice insurance problem?

Donald Palmisano: We believe the medical-liability system is broken, that the amount of awards has escalated dramatically in recent years and that there is no statistical correlation between actual negligence and payment of claims, but that there is a statistical correlation between payment amounts and disability.

Medical liability insurance has reached crisis proportions in 12 states: Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. Only seven states are stable: California, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Hawaii.

How do you define crisis?

We look at many factors: the fact that women can?t find a doctor to deliver their babies, the closure of a Level One trauma center, the early retirement of physicians, the limitation of practice by certain specialties and the movement of physicians to other states with more stable liability climates. Those meet our definition of crisis.

Yes, we do have a crisis. The crisis does come from a broken tort system.