I recently discussed Rep. Tom Price, MD’s Empowering Patients First Act in quite positive terms. Not everyone is on board. My good friend Dean Clancy labels the bill Health Care Cronyism:
Section 401, for example, authorizes new federal “best practice” guidelines written by medical societies, designed to give physicians extra protections from malpractice lawsuits. These guidelines aren’t merely educational, though. They’re established as powerful litigation tools in state courts. If a physician can show he followed them, his accuser must meet a higher burden of proof to establish negligence. That may be a good idea, but it’s unconstitutional. The power to regulate civil justice is reserved to the states under our federal system. There’s neither a legal nor a practical justification for federal medical malpractice reform. States have this. They can reform their tort systems, and many have done so, with success.
Mr. Clancy and I are in complete agreement that Congress has no role meddling in medical malpractice. So, why did I ignore this part of Dr. Price’s bill and leave Mr. Clancy prime real estate in U.S. News & World Report to lay into it?
https://youtu.be/fZUmAbi0Vm4
Continue reading Price’s Health Reform Hit From The Right →
It’s 230 pages long. The House GOP health plan, that is.
As I’ve said before, the opposition forces inside the Beltway are in total disarray. The only thing that has mattered in the past six months has been grass roots.
Here is the grab bag, disconnected set of ideas the House Republicans are calling their health plan:
Continue reading Republicans Show Why They Deserve to be the Minority Party →
No HSAs, no malpractice reform, no wellness incentives and no members of Congress in your health plan. Conservatives for Patients Rights reports that the Energy and Commerce Committee has rejected these amendments:
- Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX): $20 billion for high risk pools or other reinsurance mechanisms — lost 22-35.
- Congressman Steve Buyer (R-IN): would have allowed discounts to customers that participated in wellness and health promotion or disease prevention programs — lost 24.
- Congressmen Rogers (R-MI) and Matheson (D-UT): would have allowedHSAs/HDHPs as an option under the exchange — lost 26-33.
- Congressman Terry (R-NE): would have allowed people who buy their own insurance to buy into the FEHBP therefore giving them the same choice as members of Congress — lost 28-31.
- Congressman Burgess (R-TX): medical malpractice reform– lost 23-32.
- Congressman Stearns (R-FL): wouldhave permitted individuals to keep their current health insurance coverage — lost 26-32.
Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC): automatically enroll the President, Vice President and all Members of Congress in the public option – tabled along party lines 36-22.
This is from USA Today:
For nearly a decade, the University of Michigan Health System has been using a program in which patients report errors to a hospital “risk-management” program before filing suit. The hospital investigates and, if warranted, issues an apology and an offer of compensation to the patient. If the patient turns that down, he or she can go to court. The vast majority settle. The system moves quickly, sometimes catching errors before they’re reported.
I believe the most novel and best solution to malpractice is the NCPA's. But Philip Howard proposes health courts and argues that:
According to a 2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine [gated, but with abstract], around 25 percent of cases where there was no identifiable error resulted in malpractice payments…… According to the same study, 54 cents of every dollar paid in malpractice cases goes to administrative expenses like lawyers, experts and courts.
Health Care Policy and Reform Insights | NCPA