Recent malpractice verdict is a shot across the medical profession’s bow

A recent malpractice verdict against a well-known and highly respected orthopedic surgeon threatens to adversely impact access to care for millions of patients in New York.

Not since the 1980s, when a work stoppage by physicians successfully garnered an additional $1 million in malpractice coverage for doctors here, has there been any meaningful movement on tort reform in New York.

Physicians in New York are limited in the amount of insurance they are allowed to purchase: $1.3 million per case and $3.9 million lifetime.

Following the crisis of the 1980s, doctors became eligible to receive an additional $1 million in coverage. For that, doctors pay among the highest rates in the country and work in one of only 15 states that have no cap on damages. They can be sued successfully and found personally liable for incredibly large amounts of money.

For years there has existed a sort of steady state of affairs. Attorneys on both sides of a malpractice case profit. Malpractice plaintiffs’ attorneys and personal injury attorneys are some of the highest earners in any field. Likewise, insurance executives who provide coverage to physicians take home millions of dollars per year.

These shrewd people realized long ago that none of this would be possible without a symbiotic relationship. Attorneys would sue for and settle for policy limits, not wanting to “kill the golden goose.” Insurance companies would oblige, as long as profits and executive salaries continued to grow.

The recent case is a shot across our bow. Without getting into the specifics of the case, physicians have been sent a message: $2.3 million is no longer enough. They will seek far more than most of us will earn in a lifetime and sympathetic, misinformed juries will award it.

Momentum is building quickly in response. A work stoppage is a real possibility. A campaign to boycott certain insurers has been proposed. Someone suggested refusing to treat attorneys and their families until we get support from the legal community!

Thanks to Matthew J Phillips, M.D. and The Buffalo News