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Malpractice awards a pain for patients

Oct 16, 2007 | Staff | Massachusetts Live

What's up, doc? Medical malpractice insurance premiums.

Physicians are paying an arm and a leg for malpractice insurance in the Bay State, as much as $100,000 for some specialists. That's led to a shortage of physicians here. Even though Massachusetts has some of the best hospitals in the nation and a national reputation for quality health care, it has a severe shortage in a number of specialities, including anesthesiology, cardiology, gastroenterology, neurosurgery and vascular surgery, according to a study by the Massachusetts Medical Society.

So where are they going?

Many are going to states that have adopted stricter caps on medical damage awards, such as Texas which has seen its population of physicians climb by 18 percent since 2003 when it passed its tort reform.

Insurers blame the premium increases on the rising number of malpractice lawsuits and large jury awards levied against doctors.

Serious tort reform is a much harder sell in Massachusetts where the Legislature is heavily populated with lawyers.

Now that the state has implemented its landmark health-care reform law, the demand for medical care will be greater than ever. The Legislature needs to update its medical malpractice laws, or the Bay State won't have enough physicians to meet the new demand.

No one is taking any sympathy pills for physicians. The annual income for doctors in New England in some specialties is more than $200,000. Yet, no other professional pays nearly half of his annual income for insurance.

The pain of high malpractice premiums will sooner or later be felt most by patients. Fewer doctors are delivering babies, and fewer doctors are performing high-risk surgical procedures.

Patients will have to wait longer for medical care, or travel greater distances to be treated by a specialist.

That's something Massachusetts can't afford to let happen.