Sunday, May 08, 2005
Fixing Healthcare: The Malpractice Crisis
If you asked doctors in the eighties, this would be the big issue on their minds. It still is a huge issue, but other issues have grown to compete like actually getting paid for what you do. The insurance companies and government have joined the trial lawyers as the enemies of good health care for America. I suppose the press has tired of malpractice like it has from AIDS, still going strong itself.
The truth is that malpractice premiums have gone through the roof. Some specialties pay six figures each year to cover themselves. Talk about increasing health care costs. Besides money this has reduced access to care as some areas and even states now suffer a shortage of certain specialties like neurosurgery and obstetrics.
Costs are also increased by cover your ass tests and consultations. Better make sure because if something goes wrong, the lawyers will be looking for someone to blame, especially if they can get money out of it. Suspect something not my specialty? Order a consult for over a hundred bucks. Just in case one more hospital day at over a thousand dollars. Better get a CT at five thousand dollars. A few blood test, maybe under a hundred dollars. This adds up fast.
Simply stated malpractice is when a mistake leads to a bad outcome that has damage to the patient. Was there a mistake? This is often the first place where the process goes awry. If the care was within the normal limits of medical practice there should be no case. Period. Not this witch hunt of every detail that "could have/should have." Applying a common-sense typical doctor standard would reduce much of the bullshit.
A bad outcome. So everytime something bad happens, somebody is to blame. Medicine is not a science and there is much not known. Perfection is not in the cards. Bad shit happens. Everybody dies, so maybe we could sue every time somebody dies. Perfect for the Hilary Clinton health plan.
And what is this bad outcome damage? Pain and Suffering. Sounds ambiguous to me.
How about responsibility of the patients? If you did drugs while pregnant and the baby is fucked up, now you sue the OB? You were fat and smoked, so now the surgeon is the bad guy? The shrink is responsible when somebody whacks themselves off?
How about simply less lawyers? Or all civil trials by a judge rather than a jury? Those two reforms would go way beyond health care and malpractice for a better America. A review board could screen and toss these cases before trial if no real grounds. Limits on damages has helped in many states.
In summary, the Malpractice environment is a big contributor to costs. It also is quite discouraging to doctors, making a difficult career less rewarding emotionally. It reduces access to care by driving doctors away and even out of medicine. Somebody must eventually pay these costs and it ends up the taxpayers and patients.
The truth is that malpractice premiums have gone through the roof. Some specialties pay six figures each year to cover themselves. Talk about increasing health care costs. Besides money this has reduced access to care as some areas and even states now suffer a shortage of certain specialties like neurosurgery and obstetrics.
Costs are also increased by cover your ass tests and consultations. Better make sure because if something goes wrong, the lawyers will be looking for someone to blame, especially if they can get money out of it. Suspect something not my specialty? Order a consult for over a hundred bucks. Just in case one more hospital day at over a thousand dollars. Better get a CT at five thousand dollars. A few blood test, maybe under a hundred dollars. This adds up fast.
Simply stated malpractice is when a mistake leads to a bad outcome that has damage to the patient. Was there a mistake? This is often the first place where the process goes awry. If the care was within the normal limits of medical practice there should be no case. Period. Not this witch hunt of every detail that "could have/should have." Applying a common-sense typical doctor standard would reduce much of the bullshit.
A bad outcome. So everytime something bad happens, somebody is to blame. Medicine is not a science and there is much not known. Perfection is not in the cards. Bad shit happens. Everybody dies, so maybe we could sue every time somebody dies. Perfect for the Hilary Clinton health plan.
And what is this bad outcome damage? Pain and Suffering. Sounds ambiguous to me.
How about responsibility of the patients? If you did drugs while pregnant and the baby is fucked up, now you sue the OB? You were fat and smoked, so now the surgeon is the bad guy? The shrink is responsible when somebody whacks themselves off?
How about simply less lawyers? Or all civil trials by a judge rather than a jury? Those two reforms would go way beyond health care and malpractice for a better America. A review board could screen and toss these cases before trial if no real grounds. Limits on damages has helped in many states.
In summary, the Malpractice environment is a big contributor to costs. It also is quite discouraging to doctors, making a difficult career less rewarding emotionally. It reduces access to care by driving doctors away and even out of medicine. Somebody must eventually pay these costs and it ends up the taxpayers and patients.
