Medical malpractice legislation advancing in Congress

The House Judiciary Committee has approved legislation that would cap punitive damages in medical malpractice cases at $250,000 when it involves patients covered under Medicare, Medicaid, veterans or military health plans or plans on Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges.

The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is based on California’s medical liability reforms, the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (called MICRA). According to the Republican majority on the committee, the legislation wouldn’t limit noneconomic damages to injured patients, but would reduce malpractice premiums by up to 30 percent.

“The Protecting Access to Care Act will help keep the rising costs of healthcare from being passed along to the American people,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia. “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the reforms contained in the bill would lower health care costs by tens of billions of dollars.”

The bill advanced despite resistance from Democrats. The ranking member on the committee, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, said the bill is aimed at protecting the medical industry at the expense of patients.

“It is hard to know why a provider should be entitled to blanket immunity for dispensing a defective or dangerous pharmaceutical or medical device,” Conyers said at the beginning of the hearing. “This provision also has the potential to indirectly shield pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, who may be able to argue successfully in a product liability action that a plaintiff’s injury can be blamed on a provider’s negligence.”

Malpractice reform had been a favorite subject of HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, when he served in Congress. He once proposed moving malpractice cases out of the court system to state tribunals with at least half of its members being doctors or healthcare professionals.