Unintended Consequences

I was quite interested in reading the October 14 Wall Street Journal Blog on Health and the business of health at (http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/10/14/people-are-suing-hospitals-for-malpractice-more-frequently-report-finds/). The blog describes that malpractice claims against hospitals are on the rise. The blog describes a rise to over 44,000 claims which will cost over 8.6 billion dollars.” The article goes no to conclude the rise in malpractice suits for hospitals is one, due to an actual reduction in tort reform and two, more physicians being employed by hospitals. 

Personally I was quite disappointed that tort reform was not part of the new health care bill. My thirty years in health care has convinced me that our litigious society has negatively impacted the delivery and cost of health care. I have watched colleagues and friends who are great people and even better practitioners suffer because of malicious, and unwarranted law suites. I know there is a time and place for law in health care but it is definitely overused and abused in my opinion. I hope that some form of tort reform is planned for revisions to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Over the past several years I have been watching with interest as more and more hospitals and health care systems in the United States started hiring physicians. My experience is that most physicians “hired” by hospitals are actually part of a group of physicians. For example, in my community one or two emergency department physician groups are hired to cover the emergency departments of several local hospitals. Over the past few years these emergency department provider groups have added Hospitalists to their ranks. A hospitalist is a practitioner who works in the hospital to manage patient care and provide care continuity. Hospitalists usually do not carry a practice of patients in a private clinic setting outside the hospital.  It only makes sense to work with the emergency physician groups; these groups are formed, mature and have experience contracting with the hospitals.

Law suits against hospitals and hospital systems, versus ones against individual practitioners must be a dream-come-true for the malpractice attorneys. The award pot went from large to enormous. It will be interesting to watch these cases and see if the awards are even higher than before. I do not think this litigious trend will be good for patients, insurers, hospitals and we the public, who will ultimately pay the price. I hope this rise in law suits will prompt legislators to pursue stronger tort reform and possible amendments to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.