Study shows bad doctors need strong punishment

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I do agree with POTUS on one thing: there is a problem with medical malpractice litigation.

My conclusion, however is different: bad doctors are screwing it up for everyone else. Fact is, a tiny, tiny fraction of doctors cause the majority of malpractice suits, resulting in huge damage awards.

POTUS' solution is to cap damage awards. But common sense tells you to strongly punish the bad doctors so they cannot continue practicing shoddy medicine.

And, you know what? POTUS' own experts agree:

Experts retained by the Bush administration said Tuesday that more effective disciplining of incompetent doctors could significantly alleviate the problem of medical malpractice litigation...

[T]the experts said states should first identify those doctors most likely to make mistakes that injure patients and lead to lawsuits.

The administration commissioned a study by the University of Iowa and the Urban Institute to help state boards of medical examiners in disciplining doctors.

"There's a need to protect the public from substandard performance by physicians," said Josephine Gittler, a law professor at the University of Iowa supervising part of the study. "If you had more aggressive policing of incompetent physicians and more effective disciplining of doctors who engage in substandard practice, that could decrease the type of negligence that leads to malpractice suits."

But here's the problem: most State Boards of Medical Examiners are loathe to discipline their own. So, tort law becomes the vehicle whereby bad doctors are punished.

Not all state boards are like this, however:

Massachusetts has adopted an approach that experts say may provide a model for other states. Without waiting for a complaint to be filed, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine conducts a clinical review of any doctor who has made three or more malpractice payments to patients, as a result of jury verdicts or settlements. Nancy Achin Audesse, executive director of the board, said: "Three is a magic number. Doctors who have to make three or more payments are also more likely to be named in consumer complaints and to be subject to discipline by hospitals and the medical board."

In Massachusetts during the last 10 years, Audesse said, "one-fourth of 1 percent of all the doctors — 98 of the 37,369 doctors — accounted for more than 13 percent of all the malpractice payments, $134 million of the $1 billion in total payments."

Let conservatives tout their "Corporate Immunity Act," commonly called "tort reform."

Progressives will re-frame the issue so that it's about responsibility and accountability to the average citizen.

(HT to Charles Kuffner)