http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/localstoryA5951A.htm
State clarifies malpractice facts More doctors coming in, no sharp rise in settlements By Paige St. John FLORIDA TODAY TALLAHASSEE -- There are more doctors coming to Florida than leaving the state. There is no avalanche of frivolous lawsuits against doctors. And there has been no sharp rise in medical malpractice settlements made by insurance companies. Senators used Monday's hearing on the state's medical malpractice crisis to pin down insurance industry witnesses and state regulators and pierce through much of the hype surrounding medical malpractice. "It is disingenuous to say there is a physician shortage in Florida when they are leaving for all sorts of reasons," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Alex Villalobos, R-Miami. He spoke after hearing testimony the number of Florida physicians increased during the past five years, and that even the rate they are entering the state has gone up. "Yes, there are more physicians today, and there is also a huge increase in the population," Florida Medical Association CEO Sandra Mortham rebutted. "However, there are huge changes in the patterns of practice. And I could read you pages of physicians who have left the state of Florida." For some participants, Monday's hearing, to be continued today, merely provided a repeat of previous Senate hearings, albeit with a little more showmanship. "To me, the issues were known," said Sen. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, one of the few Senate Judiciary members who did not take a turn at grilling insurance and medical industry officials. He met with FMA officials afterward. "(There was) nothing new, nothing that anybody didn't already know," Webster said. What was new was this time the witnesses, who appeared voluntarily, were under oath. The difference wasn't so much in what witnesses said but what senators asked. They dogged FMA officials on the $4.5 million the association received in insurance company endorsements. The payments, as well as other insurance industry perks received by FMA officials, were detailed Sunday by Florida Today. They questioned First Professionals Insurance Corp. over why it is pushing so hard for a $250,000 cap on pain-and-suffering awards when the company has boasted to stockholders of its profits in Florida. They confronted trial attorneys for taking 40 percent shares of the medical malpractice cases they win. And they challenged regulators for taking insurance companies at their word on the predictions for malpractice claims used to generate rate increases. "So you rely on the fox to guard the henhouse?" Sen. Skip Campbell, D-Tamarac, told, more than asked, Steve Roddenberry, director of the Office of Insurance Regulation. Witness after witness denied a crush of frivolous lawsuits has crippled the state's medical malpractice tort system. Up until Monday, it had been a pet claim of not only the Florida Medical Association, but also Gov. Jeb Bush and President Bush as they seek caps on jury awards for non-economic damages. "We fixed the frivolous lawsuit problem" in past legislative sessions, testified Bob White, president of First Professionals Insurance. "I am not aware of any instance where we said the problem was the enormous amount of frivolous lawsuits," said Jeff Scott, legal counsel for the FMA. Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla was practically gleeful at the turnabout, pulling out for a reporter a June 2002 press release from the FMA asserting "an explosion of frivolous lawsuits and excessive awards" had sent malpractice rates skyrocketing. "And I've got dozens more of them, pink sheets, green sheets, that they sent me every day of the session," the Miami Republican said. Following 10 months of statewide hearings and endless legislative debate, and even as other Senate and House negotiators finish work on compromise medical malpractice legislation, Monday's sworn testimony did produce some new information. For the past 12 months, during the height of an insurance crisis that has Florida insurance companies charging doctors some of the highest rates in the nation, 2,658 new doctors' licenses were approved by the state, regulators said Monday. By comparison, 2,471 new licenses were granted the year before, regulators testified. Those numbers don't tell the whole story, said the FMA's Mortham. "You have high-risk areas where we are at crisis level," Mortham told senators, pulling out her own list of some 300 physicians who say they will leave the state and noting each of them has likely caseloads of 5,000 patients. "Yes, there may be a new kid on the block, but is that who Mom and Dad want to go to?" Mortham asked. Typical of the biting exchanges that peppered Monday's first hearing, senators pointed out some of the doctors on Mortham's list are headed to North Carolina and New York, states also with alleged medical malpractice crisis or where there are no caps on malpractice jury awards. Mortham also volunteered 30 state medical associations have some sort of insurance endorsement agreement, and 29 of them get paid for that endorsement. And she noted a competitor gets paid endorsements from several of Florida's county medical associations. The FMA's agreement with FPIC makes up 10 percent of the association's annual budget, on par with other states, she said. She and other FMA witnesses said the contract, however, has no bearing on the FMA's support with FPIC for a cap on jury awards. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
