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PIAA Legislative Alert
    

Medical Justice Act of 2007 - Background
On September 10, U.S. Representative Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX), introduced federal medical liability reform legislation based on the reforms adopted in Texas in 2003. Unlike bills introduced in the U.S. Senate earlier this year, this new legislation goes beyond merely adopting the Texas cap on noneconomic damages.

The centerpiece of the Medical Justice Act of 2007 (H.R. 3509) is, of course, a three-tiered $250,000 cap on non-economic damages (one tier for physicians, one for hospitals, and another for a second hospital or other institution), for an aggregate cap $750,000. Additionally, the bill:

• sets the total cap for wrongful death cases at $1.4 million (indexed for inflation),
  
  
• provides for periodic payment of future damages,
  
  
• establishes a statute of limitations and repose for two and ten years respectively,
  
  
• sets more stringent standards for expert witnesses, and
  
  
• establishes that an insurer cannot be held liable for damages beyond the policy limits simply because the insurer previously rejected a settlement offer that was within the policy limits.

PIAA Analysis
As of today, the bill currently has no cosponsors. It appears the bill was introduced primarily to provide an alternative to those who believe the previously introduced HEALTH Act (which based on California ’s MICRA law) cannot obtain sufficient support and therefore other options are needed. It is not clear at this time if Cong. Burgess will attempt to rally support for the bill or if he will be content to simply have the bill serve as a placeholder until the tort reform environment becomes more favorable.

H.R. 3509 was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, although the Committee is not expected to take any action on it.

PIAA Position
The Texas model has been tremendously successful in increasing patient access to physicians and spurring rate cuts by some of the State’s largest carriers. Since the adoption of the Texas reforms, many medical liability insurance carriers have provided Texas policyholders with rate cuts totaling up to 30%. Texas is also licensing an average of 400 more doctors per year than before the reform took place. With this track record, the PIAA believes the Texas reforms can play an important part in medical liability reform debate.

The PIAA applauds Representative Burgess for keeping the issue of tort reform alive before Congress, and remains committed to working with Congress to enact effective medical liability reform on the federal level.

To read more about the bill, including its full text, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.03509: