Posted on 03/02/2004 7:45:30 AM PST by writer33
Prenatal care for pregnant women is drying up in rural areas, partly because of steep malpractice insurance rates, rural hospital administrators told U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt at a meeting Monday.
When rural doctors decide to drop obstetrics insurance coverage and stop delivering babies -- as they have in Odessa, Republic and Davenport -- they're also prohibited by their insurance companies from offering prenatal care.
That means more pregnant women who've never had a prenatal checkup are showing up at Spokane hospitals to deliver babies.
"That is Third-World medicine," said Tom Corley, president of Holy Family Hospital. "That's what you'd expect in the middle of Africa."
Other rural women are making long drives into Spokane for prenatal care.
In Davenport, Lincoln Hospital stopped delivering babies in July 2002 because of high program costs, including rising insurance premiums for the hospital and for doctors. Before that, 30 to 40 babies a year were born at the hospital.
Even after dropping deliveries, the hospital's malpractice premium went up about 75 percent to $71,000 a year, said hospital administrator Tom Martin. This year, the annual premium went up again to $139,500.
The Lincoln County Public Hospital Board will decide March 18 whether to pay an additional $350 per patient in insurance for a staff doctor to provide prenatal care.
The insurance company quoted that rate if 30 or fewer women were served, Martin said.
"We may have to ration and not take any more appointments after 30 (patients)," he said.
Nethercutt, R-Spokane, met with hospital administrators at Holy Family Hospital in Spokane.
"It's that lottery mentality," he said, that leads to malpractice lawsuits, large jury awards and settlements.
But Sue Evans, of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, said Nethercutt's meeting with hospital leaders is an example of "ratcheting up the political rhetoric." The association opposes limits on jury awards for malpractice.
"Nothing they're asking for will help them on their insurance premiums," she said.
According to a Congressional Budget Office report, insurance companies have raised malpractice rates for two reasons: growth in malpractice awards and stock market investment losses.
Nationally, malpractice premiums rose 15 percent for all doctors between 2000 and 2002. For obstetricians, premiums rose by 22 percent during that time.
A medical malpractice reform bill that would limit damages paid to victims passed the U.S. House of Representatives. But a similar bill stalled in the U.S. Senate where Republicans didn't have the votes to break a Democratic-led filibuster.
Republicans plan to keep the issue alive through the November election. On Monday, Nethercutt accused Democrats of being "held captive" on the issue by the trial lawyers lobby.
Meanwhile in Olympia, state lawmakers also are warring over medical malpractice with no compromise in sight.
Third World medicine? It's only sixty miles from Davenport to Spokane. When I lived in Farmington, New Mexico, I used to drive 180 miles for medical care by the Veterans Administration in Albuquerque.
Here's the point. Tort reform anyone?
Brought to you by the trail lawyers of America...
Of course the phrase 'protection racket' and 'extortion' would have to be removed from the language.
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