Newsday
Long Island, NY
http://www.newsday.com/business/li-doctors-obama-should-support-malpractice-award-caps-1.1305881
Dr. Robert Scher said listening to President Barack Obama when he spoke before the American Medical Association recently was “wonderful.” “He talks beautifully and he knows what buttons to push, and he pushed them,” said Scher, a Huntington ophthalmologist who was a delegate to the AMA convention in Chicago where Obama last month delivered his address about health care reform. The only off moment? It came when Obama said he didn’t support caps on medical malpractice awards, which has been a major goal of doctors in the current debate about changing the nation’s health care system. The issue hits home on Long Island, where doctors have the highest medical malpractice rates in the state. Obama drew boos from the audience and disappointment from Scher and another AMA delegate from Long Island, Dr. John Ostuni, an internist and endocrinologist from Freeport. “It’s a big factor,” Ostuni said of the need for tort reform. “Hopefully wiser heads will intervene.” But the president got kudos from both doctors and others when he addressed the need to deal with “excessive defensive medicine.” Speaking of health care reform, Obama said: “I recognize that it will be hard to make some of these changes if doctors feel like they are constantly looking over their shoulder for fear of lawsuits.” Doctors, worried they will be sued, often order more tests and thus drive up health care costs. “I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine and encourage broader use of evidence-based medicine,” said Obama – meaning doctors should decide treatment based on science, and not because of concerns about lawsuits or insurance-company approvals. Kevin Dahill, chief executive of the Nassau Suffolk Hospital Council, said he welcomed the fact that the president had “injected himself into the discussion. “I don’t think anyone should be denied his day in court. The question is: Who is deserving? How do you rule out frivolous actions?” Dahill said. But the issue remains contentious, and some patient groups are pushing for even more leeway in filing malpractice suits. Geri Barish, president of 1 in 9: The Long Island Breast Cancer Coalition, said she supports a bill in both the Senate and Assembly that would extend the amount of time one could file a lawsuit from 2.5 years after a mistake is made to 2.5 years after a mistake is discovered. The measure has passed the Committee on Codes in the Senate and is still in committee in the Assembly. Pam Bennett, regional director of the advocacy group Citizen Action in New York City, called supporting the bill a “no-brainer.” Ostuni, on the other hand, said it would be “disastrous” if it became law. Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Manhattan-based Center for Justice and Democracy, a nonprofit consumer group, chided Obama for his “anti-patient rhetoric” by implying that “too many lawsuits are somehow interfering with the ability to practice medicine.” Doroshow’s group endorsed a recent study by the nonprofit New York Public Interest Research Group, which found that malpractice payments in the state are not skyrocketing, but have risen at about the same rate as inflation from 1993 to 2008. “I think the president was reacting to the political interest of the AMA and wasn’t working off the facts,” said Blair Horner, NYPIRG’s legislative director. As for whether he thought tort reform would be a large part of Obama’s health care package: “I would be surprised,” he said.
