Delegates target courts for liability reform expansion

Liability surcharges, countersuits and ethics surrounding physician job actions also were on the agenda.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Dec. 27, 2004.

Atlanta -- Tort reform is still the AMA's No. 1 legislative priority, but doctors have a list of other proposed changes aimed at reducing medical liability costs that they would like to see take hold.

Reining in medical expert witnesses was perhaps the most talked-about idea at the American Medical Association Interim Meeting here in December. It was also one that more than 6,000 AMA members who responded to a pre-meeting survey agreed was an area needing some changes.

Doctors at the meeting toughened medical expert witness standards outlining which colleagues they believe should be allowed to testify in court and sent a message that they want to see state courts adopt expert witness policies similar to those followed at the federal level.

The efforts are in addition to the AMA's ongoing push to pass federal tort reform that includes a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages in medical liability cases. The reform has passed the House but failed to pass the Senate in this session.

With the AMA listing 20 states in the midst of a medical liability insurance crisis because physicians can't afford their premiums, doctors say they need to continue to do what they can to temper the situation.

"We know a cap is a necessary ingredient," said Donald J. Palmisano, MD, the AMA's immediate past president. "The other parts are very important, too. ... We need a system that is fair to patients, physicians and lawyers."