Watchdog Blog

Maryland Doctors Cry "Wolf" Again!

Once again Maryland doctors are raising the specter that patients will be denied access to medical care because doctors will be leaving Maryland as the cost of medical liability insurance increases.  The last time they used this scare tactic they convinced the Assembly to subsidize their premiums.  Now as those subsidies are set to expire they’re back with the same tired threats. Citing an emerging doctor shortage, doctors are urging Assembly members to enact “tort reforms” designed to slam the court house door on injured patients.

First, claims of an emerging doctor shortage are not borne out by the facts.  A recent report to The Governor’s Task Force on Health Care Access and Reimbursement indicated that data collected from the American Medical Association and the American Osteopathic Association and adjusted on a consistent basis shows that Maryland has the 4th highest patient care physician to population ratio in the U.S.

A Self-Inflicted "Crisis"

When NY’s Superintendent of Insurance announced a 14 percent across-the-board rate hike for medical liability insurance on July 1, 2007, doctors raised a hue and cry that the increase threatened a crisis in access to care because doctors could no longer afford to practice in New York and would be leaving the state or otherwise restricting their medical practices.  As in the past, doctors again blamed the premium increases on skyrocketing claims and lottery awards and demanded tort reforms that would cripple meritorious malpractice claims by the victims of medical negligence.

Today Public Citizen released a report that exposes these claims of the doctors as full blown, deliberate and obvious exaggeration: A Self-Inflicted “Crisis:” New York’s Medical Malpractice Troubles Caused by Flawed State Rate Setting and Raid on Rainy Day Fund. These same claims have been made by doctors during each of the three cycles of rising premiums that have occurred over the past thirty-plus years. Our report shows that rising malpractice premiums are not the result of any escalation in the frequency or severity in malpractice payments. The increase has nothing to do with patients, lawyers, judges, or our courts. It reflects an insurance problem.

Public Citizen’s analysis of the best available New York data demonstrates that the number of malpractice payments made on behalf of doctors in 2006 was at its lowest point since 1991. The total amount of malpractice payments for doctors, adjusted for inflation, was near or below fifteen year average in three of the past five years.

The amount of malpractice litigation in New York has not changed appreciably over the past eleven years. Thus, it is clear that the 14 percent increase in premiums did not reflect a sudden or dramatic change in either malpractice payments or litigation behavior.

License to Malpractice

Some of you might have heard about the doctor in New York, Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, who risked exposing over 600 people to HIV, hepatitis and other deadly diseases by reusing syringes. Among the many horrendous practices brought to light with this case, there are two that particularly highlight issues with the state’s health officials and medical board.

State health officials delayed the public release of the information to patients, which inexcusably delayed testing and possible treatment for those exposed. Then the state’s medical board incredibly found “no evidence of wrongdoing.”

Unfortunately, this is by no means a singular example of the worst medical malpractice offenders being ignored by the New York State Medical Board. Of the 127 doctors in New York who have made 10 or more malpractice payments since 1990, less than one-third have had reportable licensure actions taken against them.

It is clear that we need to fix the system that allows monstrous unaccountability like Finkelstein. As our Director, Laura MacCleery, put it, “The ‘I’ll scratch your back’ culture in medicine, in which doctors have claimed they are competent to police themselves, must end before more people are killed by criminal negligence.”

Stay tuned for Public Citizen’s upcoming in-depth analysis of the state of medical malpractice and insurance in New York.