June 2009 Archives

The Arizona Senate has voted to make it harder to successfully sue emergency medical providers for alleged malpractice.

The Arizona's Senate's 21-8 vote Monday approving a bill to raise the required burden of proof for claims of negligent care sends the measure to the House.  The article is unclear but I think I recall that the new standard is "clear and convincing" evidence.  A harder hill to climb for malpractice victims in Arizona.

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed the same bill in the past.  Far away as the head of Homeland Security, I doubt she is thrilled that the Arizona legislature is rolling over for the doctor's lobby and her replacement is likely to sign the bill if it passes the Arizona House. 

The New York Times provides editorial comment on its article on medical malpractice reform.   Everyone wants to have "no fault" medical malpractice claims.  Setting aside that it is just not a fair system, no one every bothers to provide numbers on what it would cost.  The answer: a lot more than our current system.

The median compensatory award for teeth and mouth soft tissue injuries, infections, gum disease, nerve damage, and TMJ injuries is $25,000, according to Jury Verdict Research's recent study earlier this year.

This is not a particularly telling statistic for settlement value of individual cases. 

One disturbing response to the high cost of health care - particularly elective treatments that require medical doctors - is medical tourism.  This is an interesting article on the pros and cons of medical tourism.As the article points out, the biggest problem is knowing what you are getting into abroad and the inability to access who can do what well.