Texas Doctors Close Offices, Picket to Protest Skyrocketing Malpractice Claims

TBO.com ^ | 4/8/02 | Lynn Brezosky

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Hundreds of doctors and other medical professionals closed their offices Monday to protest malpractice lawsuits that they say have led to skyrocketing insurance premiums.

Many of them descended on the Hildago County Courthouse Monday for a "day of awareness."

Dr. Jose Igoa, a 47-year-old psychiatrist who held a picket sign, says he paid $28,000 for medical malpractice insurance last year - three to four times what he paid five years ago. Now, he can't find a renewal policy at all.

Like other doctors here, he says he has been the target of frivolous lawsuits that take time out of his practice and are emotionally stressful.

He says the problem is getting worse.

"We're doctors. We train more than half of our lives to help people. We don't want to cause harm to anybody," he said. "We understand that when we cause some damage we want people to be fairly compensated. But when it comes to legal extortion ... it changes the way we practice medicine."

Up the coast in Nueces County, where 63 percent of doctors had claims filed against them in the last 13 years, doctors planned simultaneous activities to show support.

Emergency services at hospitals will not be stopped.

"They see this as a plea for survival for doctors and patients," said Jon Opelt of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, which helped organize and publicize the protest.

Critics of the walkout say doctors are being misled by groups backed by big business and seeking limits on jury awards. They say there's no guarantee insurance companies will pass savings from such limits onto policy holders. Meanwhile, they say, tort reforms give patients less recourse against medical errors that kill more people than car accidents, cancer or AIDS.

"Instead of marching on a courthouse, turning their backs on patients, they ought to be marching on the governor's office and joining with constituents to try to do something about skyrocketing insurance rates," said Craig McDonald, director of the lobbying group Texans for Public Justice.

In Texas and nationwide, the insurance industry has been rocked by the stock market slide, the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and lawsuit expenses.

Since 1999, seven of 17 malpractice insurance carriers serving Texas have either left or gone belly up, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.

"Over the last couple of years, we have been paying out more in claims than we have taken in in premiums," said Julie Pulliam of the National Insurance Association. "Claim costs have gone through the roof. The primary reason is the cost of lawsuits. That's why insurers are very supportive of tort reform."

[Rippin]

Once again, liberals insist on short-circuiting market forces with statist over-rides and then will crow about how the free market can't be trusted to provide enough health care professionals at an affordable price. Idiots.

Rippin

[George from New England]

Could the willingness of some doctors to continue to perform abortions be a part of this problem? With lawsuits on behalf of the "handicapped born" and "their right not-to-be-born" at issue, be a factor?

[refermech]

Ha Ha! Maybe the doctors will stop supporting the same policies the lawyers support. (mostly liberal)

[WilliamWallace1999]

You don't have a clue what you are talking about. The lawyers of South Texas have all the judges on the take and have been caught setting up shame patients to target specialist that still have good coverage. Do a little more research on this issue before you decide. Malpractice is a redistribution of wealth, not a fair way to give compensation to those that have been injured. There are several reported cases of doctors being sued who have not even seen the patient. The Plaintiffs lawyer just sued every doctor on the staff to sort them out. It cost thousands of dollars to just get non-suited in such a case.

For many clinics in south Texas, 100% premium increases were not unusual. We were also warned to be ready for at least that big an increase next year. The article is wrong about the number of companies still writing insurance in Texas. As of last month, only two remained and one of them is on the brink of receivership.

Make sense of this. I met with an Ob/Gyn from McAllen last week who is paying $80,000 a year for $100,000 coverage. Is this guy a quack? Hardly, he's a former professor and director of the Texas Association of Ob/Gyn.

Tell you what. You make a cogent suggestion about a solution that helps patients and doesn't increase the profits of trial lawyers, and I will make sure the governor gets it personally. PS- Texans for Public Justice only has one member, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.

[WilliamWallace1999]

Could the willingness of some doctors to continue to perform abortions be a part of this problem? With lawsuits on behalf of the "handicapped born" and "their right not-to-be-born" at issue, be a factor?

Nice attempt at Doctor bashing and changing the subject. FYI, neither of the companies still writing insurance in Texas even covers abortions. They have been off the traditional policies for decades. The blood soaked hands of abortionist are usually insured by Lloyds of London. No decent group of physicians wants any part of that abomination. Its all about the lawyers enriching themselves at society and patients expense. No fault med-mal insurance that benefits all patients injured in the course of care would be far less expensive. Typically over half the settlement ends up in the lawyers hands with the expenses they pile on after the 40% cut.

[WilliamWallace1999]

You don't know Jack about Texas physicians. The liberal socialist agendas of most national organizations are promulgated by the whacko's for both coasts. As a group, Texas physicians are >90% Republican and actively supported GWB when we were blessed to have him as Governor.

[Savage Beast]

Ultimately--who's going to pay for those stratospheric insurance premiums and "settlements"?

Thaaaat's right! If, of course, the entire health care system doesn't go "belly up" like the insurance carriers.

And who's going to reap the big benefits from these "settlements"?

Riiiiight again! There's got to be at least one Mercedes in the garage of every trial lawyer--and those things are expensive!

[I still care]

I have dealt with insurance companies for large losses on two occaisions in my life. This last time I got a lawyer. I am not a fan of lawyers, I have seen too many helpless people scammed by too many (although I am sure there are good ones, I just haven't found them yet.)

But it seems to me until I got the attorney I didn't get the time of day from the insurance company. When I tried to deal with them on my own they were rude and did not come close to adequately covering the problem their insured caused. I lost thousands of dollars and my health. Once I got an attorney, not only did I not have to deal with their rudeness any more, but I actually started to get some results.

I hate insurance companies. They take your money, promising you results, and then spend all their effort trying to get out of paying you.

[0scill8r]

bump

[Voltage]

Closed for an entire day. Not part of a day...an entire day! WOW!! This is really going to change things.

[knuthom]

There are several reported cases of doctors being sued who have not even seen the patient. The Plaintiffs lawyer just sued every doctor on the staff to sort them out. It cost thousands of dollars to just get non-suited in such a case.

This is not just happening in Texas. My husband is an OB/GYN. He has been sued in cases where he saw the patient after the malpractice is alleged to have occurred, but his name was on the chart so they sued him any way.

He was sued in another case that would have been funny if it didn't cost a lot to deal with. The patient was a nurse (but not an OB nurse) who thought she knew medical terminology. She sued for something that never happened because she didn't understand the words used in the chart. The hospital lawyers told her lawyer immediately to check the records, that what she claimed was not there. But the stubborn lawyer insisted it was true. Eventually he must have consulted with someone who knew what they were talking about because the case was dropped, but not before running up lots of bills for the defense.

[concerned about politics]

That's the whole idea. Get the Democrat donating liberal trial lawyers in there with get rich quick scemes, sue the doctors into oblivian so health care costs get so high, the Democrats in Washington "have no choice " but to create a facist federal health care system, so all "your bodies are ours!"
BTW, 89% of Americans are happy with the health care system we have. This is Marxist propaganda. There is no health care crises. They make up a crises, real or imagined, and run in a saviors to fix it. More power and control over the unwashed masses is their goal.
The only health care crises is the litigation crises the liberal trial lawyers have created.

[realpatriot71]

Texas Doctors Close Offices, Picket to Protest Skyrocketing Malpractice Claims

Good for these docs! All I have to say is, "F the f-n f-ers!". Once you start punishing the thinkers for thinking, it is only a matter of time before they quit thinking for you. Then what is everyone with their hand out going to do when they need competent medical care. What are they going to do when competent docs quit practice and bright young minds quit going to medical school? Idiots!

What would you tell Atlas to do when you saw him holding the world on his shoulders and getting nothing but greif from it? I'd tell him to shrug . . .

[RWG]

When I worked in vocational rehabilitation, my business partner attended a staffing at which it was discovered that the disectomy performed had been at the wrong level. One story doesn't a thesis confirm, but actuaries run the insurance industry and they have the numbers, a sort of supply and demand scenario: a lot of bad medicine and a lot of malpractice money to be paid.

[glockmeister40]

I believe medical practitioners are in short supply. Let prices rise and their wages and the result is more people will want to be in the field. One thing we need to do is eliminate the bottleneck that medical schools create - there are many people who could make it through med school, but the schools only take a few. Not enough doctors are being produced. To really get health care prices down, just add one million doctors.

[WilliamWallace1999]

You have eloquently stated what I believe way back in my "black helicopter" paraniod mind. The meltdown of healthcare reimbursement system is being maipulated to guide us all toward socialized medicine. Physicians are being worn down to the point they are losing focus on why we joined this profession. I almost swallowed my tongue when one of our surgeons stated he would be happier if the government would just take it all over and pay him a steady check. If that were a better system, there wouldn't be more Canadian doctors in the US than in Canada. Health insurance is screwing patients AND screwing doctors to the benefit of the shareholders and the bond market. This is not the way to finance healthcare. Medical savings accounts with patients actually paying for there care would be the fastest way to stop waste in medicine. Patients want maximum care becuase "the insurance" is paying for it. If they had to at least write the checks for care, maybe they would question the level of care. The savings to society could be enormous, and ethical doctors would not be penalized. This system is opposed by government because they want more, not less control over the system.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Critics of the walkout say doctors are being misled by groups backed by big business and seeking limits on jury awards. They say there's no guarantee insurance companies will pass savings from such limits onto policy holders.

Mabye, but it is pretty much guaranteed that insurance companies won't continue to eat the costs.

Meanwhile, they say, tort reforms give patients less recourse against medical errors that kill more people than car accidents, cancer or AIDS. "Instead of marching on a courthouse, turning their backs on patients, they ought to be marching on the governor's office and joining with constituents to try to do something about skyrocketing insurance rates," said Craig McDonald, director of the lobbying group Texans for Public Justice

Sounds like the doctors at least have commonsense.  Unlike others mentioned here....

[scholar]

But it seems to me until I got the attorney I didn't get the time of day from the insurance company.

You make and excellent point. I once worked for a personal injury attorney. There were many clients obviously looking for deep pockets, but there were many others who would never have approached an attorney if the insurance company had dealt with them fairly from the start.

[RJCogburn]

Medical savings accounts with patients actually paying for there care would be the fastest way to stop waste in medicine.

True.