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Home / Washington Business - March/April 2005 / Points of View: Initiative 336 Will Ensure Safer, More Affordable Health Care For Everyone |
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Points of View: Initiative 336 Will Ensure Safer, More Affordable Health Care For Everyone |
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Written On: March/April 2005 |
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Written By: By Patricia Greenstreet |
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Patricia Greenstreet is a nurse and attorney who has represented patients in medical negligence actions exclusively for the past 20 years. She was selected by the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association to present their point of view on health care reform.
Initiative 336 offers a real solution to the complex problems of the medical malpractice system. It offers a multifaceted approach by providing accountability for everyone — doctors, lawyers and the insurance industry.
I-336 ensures patient safety, reforms the insurance industry, and promotes legal reform.
In contrast, Initiative 330 approaches the same problem without holding anyone responsible. Instead, it shields bad doctors from accountability and takes away the right of an innocent injured patient to have his/her day in court.
Nearly 200,000 Americans die each year due to medical negligence — the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every day of the year. That means that more people die each year at the hands of a few bad doctors than die from diabetes, influenza, Alzheimer’s or HIV/AIDS.
I-330 avoids accountability, restricts patients’ rights, and will cost taxpayers money.
If bad doctors are not held accountable and their insurance companies are let off the hook, injured patients will still need care — and care for catastrophic injuries costs money.
In Washington, annual costs resulting from injuries caused by medical malpractice average between $355 million and $606 million per year. If I-330 were to pass, the most egregious cases would be the most affected, and the cost of these injuries would be shifted to taxpayers and health insurers, including small business owners. I-336 would ensure injured patients are able to seek adequate compensation from those who actually cause the harm.
I-336 is supported by a coalition of consumer rights and labor organizations, the Washington Council of Fire Fighters, health care providers, trial lawyers, and patients who have been injured because it is simply good policy.
Provisions in I-336 are modeled after House and Senate bills proposed by both Democrats and Republicans during the 2003 and 2004 legislative sessions, and many were part of a package supported by former Gov. Gary Locke.
I-336 will:
• Strengthen the state commission charged with disciplining negligent doctors and add citizen members to its board.
• Eliminate secrecy agreements that bad doctors use when settling cases to hide their medical negligence histories.
• Track malpractice claims and provide the public with access to that information.
• Forces insurance companies to publicly justify rate hikes to protect good doctors from insurance rate gouging.
• Strengthen our civil justice system by holding attorneys accountable by requiring them to file a certificate of merit, and sanctioning lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits.
• Require the state to investigate any health care provider who has paid three claims of $50,000 or more in five years. Three judgments in 10 years could result in disciplinary action or a revoked license.
The Washington State Medical Association has said that less than one-quarter of 1 percent of physicians insured by Physicians Insurance would be affected by the “three-strikes” provision in I-336. This falls in line with studies that show only 3.5 percent of Washington doctors are causing 42.6 percent of the medical negligence that occurs in this state.
Most doctors in Washington would never be affected by the three-strikes provision — but there are a handful of bad doctors who would be under serious scrutiny. If those few bad doctors have their licenses revoked or have other disciplinary action taken against them, health care would be much safer for all patients.
Currently, the Medical Quality Assurance Commission, Washington’s board that has disciplinary authority over physicians and physicians’ assistants, is ranked 41st out of 50 states when it comes to disciplining bad doctors. Right now, our medical disciplinary board is allowing the bad doctors to slip through the cracks and continue practicing — and injuring patients — and potentially impacting malpractice insurance rates for all physicians in Washington.
The only effective way to reduce the cost of malpractice insurance is to reduce the amount of malpractice. I encourage your support of Initiative 336.
To learn more about I-336, log on to www.bettersafercare.org.
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