adminMost Pennsylvania physicians — more than 93 percent according to a 2009 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association —report that they continue to engage in defensive medicine as a result of the state’s hostile medical liability environment.
Physicians often ask us, “What has the Pennsylvania Medical Society [PAMED] done to address this problem in the past and what are you doing now to achieve meaningful tort reform in Pennsylvania?”
| Find out more in our recently published Medical Liability Reform in Pennsylvania: 2014-2015 Update. |
| What Is PAMED Doing to Bring More Tort Reforms to PA?
PAMED is both your voice and your advocate for pro-physician medical liability reform in Pennsylvania and has a robust tort reform agenda. We are aggressively seeking reforms to:
|
What Have We Done for You?
While there is certainly more to be done to enact meaningful tort reform here in Pennsylvania, PAMED has achieved many important remedies addressing major physician concerns, including:
Apology
Physician apologies and other benevolent gestures (except admissions of fault or negligence) to a patient after a poor outcome are inadmissible to prove liability in a medical liability action.
Expert witness qualifications
Establishes expert witness qualifications, including active practice or teaching and either same or similar specialty or board certification in same or similar specialty when defendant physician is board certified.
Venue
Medical liability actions may be filed only in the county where the cause of action arose, or if multiple defendants, only in a county where action against one of the individual defendants could be brought.
Joint and several liability
Modifies joint and several liability rule so that defendants less than 60 percent liable will only be responsible for their proportionate share of award.
Certificate of merit
Requires attorneys who file a professional liability action to file a certificate of merit stating that he/she has in hand a supporting report from a qualified expert within 60 days of filing claim.
Punitive damages
Punitive damages are allowed only if a health care provider engaged in willful or wanton conduct or in reckless disregard to rights of others, and are capped at 200 percent of compensatory damages except in case of intentional misconduct.
Affidavit of non-involvement
Defendants can obtain quick dismissal by filing an affidavit stating that they were not involved with the plaintiff’s care, or obligated to provide care, individually or through agents and employees.
Collateral source rule
Limits double recoveries for past “losses” covered by collateral sources such as private health and disability insurance.
Periodic payment
Mandates periodic payment of future medical damages with automatic cut-off at death.
Reduction to present worth
Mandates reduction to present worth of future work loss damages.
Statute of repose
Seven-year absolute time limit on filing of claims except in the case of an injured minor or foreign object left in the body. Preserves the existing two-year absolute limit on filing of wrongful death or survival claims except in case of fraud or wrongful concealment of cause of death.
Remittitur
Requires the court to consider the adverse impact of a verdict on availability or access to health care in the community when ruling on a motion to reduce verdict.
All of these reforms are working toward improving the medical liability climate in Pennsylvania. In fact, recent data show a 45 percent decline in medical liability filings in Pennsylvania between 2012 and 2000-2002.