Study: tort reform has not cut health care costs in Texas

A new study found no evidence that health care costs in Texas dipped after a 2003 constitutional amendment limited payouts in medical malpractice lawsuits, despite claims made to voters by some backers of tort reform.

The researchers, who include University of Texas law professor Charles Silver, examined Medicare spending in Texas counties and saw no reduction in doctors' fees for seniors and disabled patients between 2002 and 2009. A 2003 voter campaign in Texas, and some congressional backers of Texas-style tort reform in every state, however, argued that capping damage awards would not onlycurb malpractice lawsuits and insurance costs for doctors, it would lower costs for patients while boosting their access to physicians.

Tort reform is a controversial topic likely to be resurrected by Republicans and doctors' groups who hoped to make it part of the 2010 federal health care law.

[visit Texas Injury Lawyers' website]

The researchers' findings come after a report last fall in which the Ralph Nader-founded consumer group Public Citizen said it found Medicare spending in Texas rose much faster than the national average after tort reform. Critics of that study said that tort reform leaders never promised health care spending would decline and noted that caps on damage awards brought steep drops in malpractice insurance rates for doctors and large increases in new doctors coming to Texas.

Another study yet to be published on physician supply and tort reform, also by Silver's group, agrees that malpractice suits and payouts sharply dropped after tort reform. But that study strongly disputes claims of a mass exodus of Texas doctors before tort reform and huge increases afterward.

On the question of health care costs, Silver's group focused on the federal government's Medicare program, which makes up 20 percent of the $2.5 trillion spent on U.S. health care.

That group — consisting of two Republicans, a Democrat and a foreign national, according to the researchers — analyzed data at the county level in Texas, said Tom Baker, author of a 2005 book, "The Medical Malpractice Myth," and a professor of law and health sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

"This is a very highly regarded study, and this team is highly regarded," Baker said. The study was paid for by the researchers' universities, Silver said, and the paper was published this month in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

"Their results didn't surprise me at all," Baker said.

[read full story at Statesman.com here]

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source: Statesman (Roser, 6/20)

Texas paper urges increase in cap on government liability

San Antonio -- Public employees, like everyone else, have accidents in the course of their duties. The public has a right to recover damages for property, physical injuries or loss of life when those accidents occur. Tort law is supposed to protect the public in cases of loss or harm.

That was the idea behind the Texas Tort Claims Act, a measure passed by the Legislature in 1969. Prior to the act, Texans could not recover damages in cases in which government employees were performing their duties.

Lawmakers also recognized that taxpayers deserve protection from frivolous and excessive lawsuits. So, additionally, the act limits the circumstances in which a governmental entity is liable for compensatory damages and caps those damages.

As Express-News staff writer John Tedesco reported, however, the caps — now $250,000 per individual — often don't allow members of the public to fully recover actual damages. That shouldn't be the case.

In one incident cited by Tedesco, a police officer answering a non-emergency call and driving 80 mph on Blanco Road without his siren or lights activated struck Vanessa Samudio. Samudio suffered major injuries, including permanent brain damage.

Samudio's medical bills alone totaled $235,500. That doesn't take into account intangible losses, such as a decreased quality of life or pain and anguish. Yet with the force of the Texas Tort Claims Act behind the city, she agreed to settle the case for $227,500.

The current $250,000 cap has been on the books since 1987. To keep up with inflation, the cap would need to be more than $500,000 to have the same purchasing power in 2012.

One solution would be for lawmakers to raise the cap to an appropriate level. Another would be to treat tort cases involving governmental liability in the same way as medical malpractice, with no limit on actual damages, but with caps on non-economic damages.

Such reforms would not burden taxpayers — the vast majority of governmental liability cases are settled well below the cap. They would, however, give Texans the opportunity to seek the compensation they are due in those rare cases where the actions of a government employee cause an extraordinary economic loss.

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source: My San Antonio (4/7)



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