Tennessee Doctors Want Medical Malpractice Award Limits In State Constitution

The Tennessee Medical Association has petitioned the state’s General Assembly to amend the state’s constitution to include medical malpractice award limits. The planned amendment would place medical malpractice award limits on non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering and punitive damages. The amendment would require passage in the current General Assembly in 2016, a two-thirds majority in the next General Assembly after the 2016 elections, and approval of the state’s voters on the 2018 ballot.

Why A Medical Malpractice Award Limits Amendment?

A law passed by the General Assembly in 2011 placed medical malpractice award limits on non-economic damages. However, several lawsuits are working their way through the state’s courts which may overturn the law. The TMA wants the constitutional amendment protecting medical malpractice award limits to prevent any judicial oversight. The current political climate, with Republicans holding a majority in both houses of the Assembly, could favor the passage of the proposed amendment.

TMA President: Medical Malpractice Award Limits “Foster Growth”

Tennessee Medical Association president Dr. John Hale released a statement regarding the proposed amendment. He wrote that a medical malpractice award limits amendment “fosters growth in Tennessee’s health care industry.” He also said that the medical malpractice award limits would diminish the number of “frivolous lawsuits and the costs that come with them.” The statement also said the amendment would “prevent us from going backwards on the issue” of non-economic damages.

“Patient Compensation System” Seeks to Replace Medical Malpractice Award Limits

The group Patients for Fair Compensation proposed another idea that would curb costs without affecting medical malpractice award limits. Instead, the group proposed a “Patient Compensation System” that would work much like the workers compensation system. Instead of depending on juries and judges to adhere to prescribed medical malpractice award limits, the system would create a schedule of payments for physician errors. A panel of physicians would serve to adjudicate malpractice cases, taking them out of the legal system entirely.

Insurance Premiums and Medical Malpractice Award Limits

TMA’s vice president and general counsel Yarnell Beatty told reporters that the current medical malpractice award limits laws have halted the trend of higher insurance premiums for the state’s doctors. He also stated that a 40 percent drop in the number of lawsuits filed against the state’s physicians can largely be credited to the medical malpractice award limits. However, he refuted the idea of a “patient compensation system,” saying that the idea was “speculative” and that doctors had expressed “threshold concerns” about the model’s financial stability.

Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press

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