Medical Liability Reform Proposals Gain Momentum

Three of several elements of medical liability reform supported by the Medical Society of DC moved a step closer to reality on April 28, 2006, when the Council Committee on the Judiciary, chaired by Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), marked up three titles of the “Medical Malpractice Reform Act of 2006.” The titles would:

• Require that a plaintiff give 90 days notice before filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. (Title III)
• Require that parties in a malpractice suit enter into mediation soon after the suit is filed. (Title IV) 
• Make certain benevolent gestures made by a health care practitioner, such as expressions of sympathy or regret, inadmissible as evidence of an admission of liability. (Title V) 

Bill 16-418 was introduced by Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large) and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1).  The bill is also a product of intense work last summer by the Council Committee on Health Malpractice Reform Task Force whose members included MSDC past presidents Peter Lavine, MD, and Charles E. Epps, Jr., MD, representatives of the hospital community and the trial bar. With a strong commitment to accomplish what few thought possible – a consensus – the Task Force succeeded in producing a report containing recommendations on which all members of the Task Force agreed.  That report was the basis for every title of the bill.  And despite the fact that high profile trial lawyers serving on the Task Force helped develop and ultimately endorsed the bill as originally introduced, the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington lobbied for several amendments.  In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Executive Vice President K. Edward Shanbacker, MPA, expressed the Medical Society’s serious opposition to some of the proposed amendments which, if accepted, would “undo any progress that the Task Force made in opening a dialogue between both sides of the contentious medical liability debate.” 

Judiciary committee members Catania and Patterson agreed completely.  At the mark up, Ms. Patterson expressed her concern, noting that the original language represents “a consensus on several contentious issues,” and that she would work the Councilmember Catania to return the bill to its original consensus language.  Mr. Catania said, “I look forward to working with the Medical Society to make sure that the compromise that was put together is in fact kept together.” Judiciary Committee Chairman Mendelson agreed to delay sending the three titles forward to the full Council so that the problematic issues could be addressed in the next 30 days.  As a result, the bill is scheduled to undergo its first vote by the full Council on June 6, 2006.

In his letter to the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Shanbacker noted that the titles marked up on April 28, 2006, were only some of the several referred to the Committee.  He urged the Committee to mark up the remaining medical liability reform provisions found in the “Health Care Reform Act of 2005,” which the Mayor, the Medical Society and other health care stakeholders strongly support.

To read the Medical Society’s letter to the Judiciary Committee regarding Titles III, IV and V of Bill 16-418, visit the News and Events section at www.msdc.org.