Senators considering the territory’s malpractice insurance system decided Friday that the system might need some adjustments – but not those contained in the two bills up for debate.
The Senate’s Health and Hospital Committee spent most of the day Friday listening to testimony on two bills that would alter the malpractice system with an eye toward making it easier for people to pursue a claim if they’ve been injured by a medical error. The bills, 29-0093 and 29-0152, were sponsored by Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, who spoke passionately about people who had lost their sight, a limb or even their life, without being able to find recompense from the system.
But a contingent of physicians, lawyers, patient advocates and other health officials helped convince the committee that the first measure would cause more trouble than it would solve, and the second addresses something that hasn’t proven to be a problem. The committee voted to table both bills indefinitely.
The first bill, 29-0093, would eliminate government-provided financial assistance premiums given to hospital-employed physicians who work in the private sector on a part-time basis.
Alice Taylor, chief executive officer of Schneider Regional Medical Center, said she has a difficult enough time recruiting specialists for the hospital. Eliminating the assistance would make matters that much more difficult, she said.
"While we recognize the serious economic crisis that is driving this proposal, removing this subsidy now will cause our community to pay more for essential on-all services over the long term," she said. "Without the subsidy, SRMC would have to pay significantly higher salaries to keep our physicians – or the community will lose access to services such as emergency trauma care, newborn delivery, fracture care and heart attack and stroke treatment."
Also opposing the bill were Dr. Anne Treasure-Hodge, Denyce Singleton, director of the AARP of the Virgin Islands; Royette Russell, legal counsel of the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital; and Carl Richardson, chief legal counsel for the Department of Health. The benches of the Frits E. Lawaetz Conference Room in Frederiksted were notable for the number of white medical coats in the audience.
The second bill, 29-0152, would have allowed people to file medical malpractice claims in court without first going through the Medical Malpractice Review process. In this process, all claims are reviewed by a medical committee which weeds out frivolous suits and can lead the way to settlements without the cost of a lawsuit, according to Treasure-Hodge.
After listening to the testimony, Sen. Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly said the system might be in need of a comprehensive overhaul, but not a piecemeal approach.
Sen. Craig Barshinger added the caution that, "In the Virgin Islands we have something that’s working very well … we must be careful not to damage something that’s already working very well."
We need help with the reporting here…What is the premium rate per thousand dollars of coverage? What is paid by the physician and what is paid by the VI? How does this compare to the mainland? Are we over or under subsidizing malpractice insurance coverage? Hint: The last question is answered by the first three.
The 29th Legislature should be commended for tabling these two bills that, if passed, would devastate our health care system. This is an excellent example of “grassroots action” in the Virgin Islands. Yes, the Legislature does listen to its constituency. If you have a comment on legislation – don’t sit idly by – speak up!
Tom Bolt
St. Thomas, VI
Tom,
Please quantify the impact of this bill to the VI taxpayer. BTW: Where is the money from Carambola/Marriott/Ritz that is owed to GERS? Aren’t you the attorney for them?
Indeed, we are still in the midst of economic crisis. But laws that are being made for the health protection of the people is much more important. There are lots of medical malpractice that happens nowadays. I hate to think that health professionals are becoming less competent nowadays. But I guess some of us could have a big misconception that medical negligence is simple to demonstrate in the event that something goes completely wrong. The issue is that a lot of issues similar to microbial infection as well as other well-known threats may not be considered malpractice more often than not. For additional information about how exactly to know for sure if you can file a claim or not it is best to take a look at this post written by Mr. Haskell a renowned attorney in Spokane WA because he has won more than a few million dollar law suits. http://haskellaw.com/article-medical-mistakes-a-primer-on-the-basics-of-medical-malpractice-4