Comments on: The House Health Reform Bill: Delivery System Reforms And Other Provisions

By: The Stupak Amendment : What If Post

The Stupak Amendment : What If Post — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:53:20 +0000

[...] And the bill goes even further in trying to appease abortion foes. Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law, explains that according to the bill: [...]

By: Health Wonk Review | Colorado Health Insurance Insider

Health Wonk Review | Colorado Health Insurance Insider — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:59:19 +0000

[...] an article devoted to the public option and insurance exchange. Next, you can read about how the reforms will impact delivery systems. And to round things out, there’s an article that details the last minute changes to the [...]

By: Thync Ingman

Thync Ingman — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:30:19 +0000

I love the “Tort Reform” discussion. It is so self serving. Tort reform works well for the insurance industry and the tortfeasor. What, though, about the injured party?

“Tort reform” proponents blame plaintiff lawyers for the “high cost” of medical malpractice insurance premiums. Interestingly, however, I cannot remember one medical malpractice case which alleged that the plaintiff lawyer left a sponge in a patient, cut an aorta or other blood vessel causing death or serious injury, performed a surgery on the wrong knee, or otherwise caused physical harm to a medical patient. Perhaps the narcissistic physician’s groups should look at each other and demand that their irresponsible peers take responsibility for their errors, compensate the victims, and avoid the high cost of litigation driven by the insurance industry’s effort to retain possession of its premium dollars.

A truly impartial analysis of the cost of personal injury caused by health-care providers and the multiplication of those costs caused by vehement defense of physicians, drug manufacturers or other irresponsible medical players would surely show the truth behind the “tort reform” discussion in the context of health care. You people need to get a life. “Tort reform” translates into “economic decision making”; it does not correct anything.

Thync Ingman

By: Timothy Jost

Timothy Jost — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:03:53 +0000

Yes. The CBO estimated .2% for the direct costs of malpractice, .3% for defensive medicine. I am all in favor of malpractice reform, but would like to see solutions that are fair to patients who are victims of malpractice as well as to doctors. I was a member of a medical licensure board for 5 years, and for 2 years was one of the two members in charge of the complaint investigations and licensure actions. There are in fact doctors out there who cause serious damage to their patients. I have seen them. But our current system is dysfunctional. If you want to discuss it further, email me.

By: Health Care BS - A TAX PLAN MASQUERADING AS A HEALTH PLAN

Health Care BS - A TAX PLAN MASQUERADING AS A HEALTH PLAN — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:38:14 +0000

[...] once-serious publications analyze Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990-page boondoggle as if it actually has something to do with health care [...]

By: MKirschMD

MKirschMD — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:35:31 +0000

Tim, there may be less daylight between us than you think. I do challenge your .5% estimate that tort reform would save on health care dollars. The cost of defensive medicine is inestimable. http://bit.ly/4mAenS Were you factoring this in your calculation?

By: Timothy Jost

Timothy Jost — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:36:39 +0000

I did not mention section section 2531 providing incentives for liabilty reform because I, like Dr. Kirsch, do not regard it to be a serious effort to address this issue. I also agree with the Congressional Budget Office, however, that malpractice liabilty is not a major driver of health care costs, and enacting the reforms favored by Dr. Kirsch would probably decrease health care costs by at most half a percent. http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10641/10-09-Tort_Reform.pdf Moreover, capping noneconomic loss and attorney’s fees without more is like capping doctors’ incomes at a fixed amount per year; perhaps an effective way to control health care costs but a blunt instrument that can hardly be regarded as fair. I think that our malpractice system is seriously flawed–doctors hate it, it leaves most patients injured through medical error uncompensated, it does little to deter error, and it has very high administrative costs (and malpractice insurers are at least as much to blame as lawyers). I join Dr. Kirsch in wishing that Congress could come up with better solutions to this problem, although I think we would disagree on what those solutions should be.

By: james mcniff

james mcniff — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:57:29 +0000

While the debate raged about the number of people uninsured and insurance mandates , the Hospital industry was being radically changed before our eyes. The Pharmaceutical companies and insurers will find the deep pockets to get through their “cost” contributions but hospitals will be forced to evolve into some other type of delivery system or face reduced rates from the federal,state and private payers and eventually extinction. Reform may have appeared to be insurance reform but in fact was delivery reform. When studies continue to come out stating that the waste in the delivery system could foot the reform bill,you have to worry if you are a hospital..

By: MKirschMD

MKirschMD — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:53:58 +0000

Why didn’t you devote a syllable to the House bill’s pseudo tort reform proposal? Pelosi offers states incentives to pursue tort reform so long as it doesn’t include caps on non-economic damages or restraining legal fees. That’s like directing a physician to treat a severe pneumonia with all available tools and remedies – except antibiotics! If relieving the medical profession of the unfair burden of the medical malpractice system is not a sufficient reason to support tort reform, then consider the tens of billions of dollars wasted on defensive medicine each year. Interestingly, Pelosi won’t permit states that have enacted tort reform to receive the incentives. In other words, a state is punished for having done the right thing. See. MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:50:13 +0000

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