Lawmakers push for med-mal reform

Days after President Barack Obama said during his State of the Union address that he would consider medical malpractice reform measures as a way to reign in health care costs, the secretary of Health and Human Services said she would submit an outline of the parameters of that plan to lawmakers.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for more specifics about the administration’s plan last week at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

“Madam Secretary, the president said … that [he] believes that medical malpractice should be an issue that we should be addressing,” McCain said to Sebelius during the hearing. “Do you agree with the president?”

“Yes, sir,” Sebelius replied.

“Would you submit, perhaps for the record, some idea of what the parameters of medical malpractice reform might be that the suggestions that the department might have?” McCain asked.

“Sure,” Sebelius replied.

McCain said that tort reform measures implemented in some states have demonstrated successful cost savings, and scolded the trial attorney lobby for efforts to thwart federal-level tort reform.

“We’re going to find out whether the trial lawyers run this place, or whether the American people and affordable health care is reachable for them, because without medical malpractice reform it makes that issue if not impossible, certainly extremely difficult,” McCain said.

Last month the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Health Care Act, H.R. 5, was introduced in the House. The measure would cap noneconomic medical malpractice damages to $250,000 and would limit punitive damages to $250,000 or as much as two times the amount of economic damages awarded, whichever is greater.

It would also prohibit juries from being informed of the liability limits before deliberations. The bill would also cut attorney fees and shorten the statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims.