North Carolina Doctors and Lawyer Battle over Medical Malpractice
February 17, 2005

It's the same old story in North Carolina, as with every other state. On one hand doctor's claim that medical malpractice insurance is driving them out of business and seriously reducing access to health care. Meanwhile trial lawyers argue that just a few physician specialties are afflicted with high malpractice premiums, and the problem they see could be fixed with a Band-Aid instead of major surgery.

Regardless lawmakers in Raleigh and Washington realize that something needs to be done now. On February 2, Sen. Robert Pittenger, R-Charlotte, introduced legislation for changes. All the Senate's Republicans and two democratic senators co-sponsored the bill. (See North Carolina Medical Malpractice Lawyer Directory.)

And so the battle lines are being drawn by the trail lawyers who make their living from medical malpractice cases and physicians who are burdened with escalating insurance costs. At the center of the debate is the malpractice protection laws that affect the doctors, lawyers, patients and, ultimately, the small-business owners who help fund the system.

Proposals by the Medical Profession:

The proposals being advanced by doctors, hospitals and their allies in North Carolina is similar to one in California proposed nearly 30 years ago. The four parts are as follows:

The medical profession wants a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages. The cap wouldn't affect economic damages, like lost wages or the cost of medical bills, but it would cap punitive damages and damages for pain and suffering. Injury lawyers claims it unfairly penalizes people who do not work.

Health care professionals will also be asking for a change to the state's collateral source rule. Full disclosure will be made to the jury on a patients other sources of income, such as health or disability insurance, that a malpractice victim might have. Currently juries can award damages for medical bills, for instance, without knowing a patient's medical bills have been paid for by health insurance.

In addition those in the industry would also like to see gradual payouts of jury awards. Malpractice insurance companies and doctors want malpractice awards for future medical bills to be paid out over time, rather than all at once.

Most important, doctors would like to see caps on plaintiff's attorneys fees. Injury lawyers typically charge a percentage, which can be as much as 50%.

Lawyers want to Spread the Risk

The North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers suggest that one way to reduce high premiums is to require medical malpractice insurers to spread the premiums for the riskiest specialties more evenly across all doctors, reducing the burden on those specialists.
Of course Doctors and insurers don't like that idea, since it is not stopping or slowing the pace of the costs.