Sample Letter - Access and Cost of Being a Patient

The increasing frequency of jumbo-sized jury awards for medical malpractice cases in our state is threatening the accessibility and quality of health care services for everyone in our state.
Local doctors are faced with increasingly difficult choices. As professional liability insurance rates continue to escalate, physicians are struggling with decisions about whether they cut back on services or leave the practice of medicine altogether because of the risk of seeing patients.

INSERT PERSONAL STORY/DATA HERE IF APPLICABLE

The issue at hand is not about the cost of a doctor’s malpractice insurance or the profitability of insurance underwriters, it is about the cost of being a patient in Tennessee. If our state cannot put reforms in place to improve our professional liability situation, women and families may bear the greatest expense. When their obstetrician decides to stop delivering babies because the fear of being sued is too great or when they cannot get a mammography appointment because nobody will read the x-rays, patients are directly affected.
Seventy percent of patients support limits on non-economic damages if their access to care is threatened. We are at that point, and it is time for Tennessee to do the right thing and act to avoid problems rather than reacting after people are hurt.
So far, 10 percent of Tennessee OB/GYNs say they have stopped delivering babies because of high premiums, which is understandable when an OB/GYN in our state can save $30,000 annually by dropping obstetrics.
A recent Tennessee Medical Association poll also found 50 percent of our state’s physicians plan to stop or reduce the number of high-risk procedures they perform, while 25 percent say they may relocate to another state or seek other options, such as a practice merger, to find a more physician-friendly environment.
Our state has to act to stop the assault on our physicians and health care providers in search of fault and a cash windfall. We agree that physicians should pay where pay is due, but our current system is being exploited by trial lawyers at the expense of doctors, patients and society’s right for accessible health care.
Caps on non-economic damages are not the only answer, but a solution proven to work. Economic damages, such as medical costs and lost income (present and future), are still recoverable with no limit.
Other measures to consider are sliding scale payments for attorneys to help ensure more award money goes directly to the patient in large cases; the ability to pay large awards over time rather than in lump sums; and pretrial certification to test the validity of claims before they enter the legal system.