15 September 2009

Malpractice Reform?

From The Atlantic:
The Menu of Malpractice Reforms - Philip K. Howard
The President committed in his speech to Congress to promote pilot projects to solve the problem of defensive medicine. "I've talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs," he stated. "So I'm proposing that we move forward on a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine."
A range of malpractice reform proposals will probably be considered over the next few weeks, and it's probably useful to catalog them, and identify the advantages of each.  All of these reforms have significant merit, but special health courts are by far the most important in reducing defensive medicine.  Each of the reforms can be combined with others, and it would be preferable to combine the best features of each.  Here's a summary:
This is a very nice read. Click through for the full read.  If you are unfamiliar with the proposals floating around out there, this is a good primer. I am a proponent of special healthcare courts, analogous to the tax courts.  I don't really expect anything to be in serious consideration given the political climate, but it would be nice, and there have been some encouraging noises, so it is a possibility, albeit remote.


  1. not holding my breath.

  2. Hmmm, I think it's just rhetoric/pandering....we'll have to see.

  3. Holy shit - my fingers are crossed.

  4. If you can't get caps on legit cases in a straightforward way, let's set up some system where the taxpayers bear even more costs that the parties normally do and still get caps. Because the tobacco industry lawyers think it's a good idea. Lord knows they're all about healthcare!