Malpractice debate heats up in Nevada Legislature

Doctors and lawyers squared off Thursday in Nevada Legislature hallways hoping to frame the debate as lawmakers search for ways to ease high malpractice insurance premiums.

Doctors who back tightening malpractice pain-and-suffering jury award caps released poll results showing Nevadans blame insurers and lawyers for "health-care availability problems" and believe further reforms are needed.

Lawyers countered by distributing a state agency survey that questions the Nevada State Medical Association's recent count of 76 medical specialists closing their practices or retiring because of unaffordable malpractice premiums.

The state Board of Medical Examiners found only 47 actually had done so, though researchers could not reach 10 physicians.

The research was requested by legislators who wanted facts to back up images of doctors fleeing the state because of soaring premiums, as depicted in a recent television ad campaign.

But discussion in Legislature hallways has not yet been matched by interest from lawmakers themselves.

Neither of the two malpractice bills introduced in the Senate has gone before committees, and no bill addressing the issue has been introduced in the Assembly.

Several lawmakers say their proposed fixes still are being drafted.

Arlington, Va.-based pollster Frank Luntz said Thursday his phone survey of 400 Nevadans, paid for by the "Keep Our Doctors In Nevada" group, should spur action.

"If the Legislature ignores the public support and the demand for a solution, the guys can kiss their seats goodbye," Luntz told reporters.

Two-thirds of those polled last week said they would be less likely to support their legislators if they voted against "additional lawsuit abuse reform and medical malpractice reform."

Insurance companies were blamed by 37 percent of respondents for health-care problems while lawyers and lawsuits were blamed by 32 percent.

The sampling error margin was five percentage points.

Assemblyman Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, said he supports SB97, the bill Luntz and doctors have touted, as the appropriate fix. Mabey is a gynecologist-obstetrician who stopped delivering babies last year due to high malpractice premiums.

He said lawmakers "need to keep chipping away" at malpractice rates, but called the poll "a lot of emotions."

Mabey wants to revive a special malpractice claim screening panel that was disbanded by lawmakers in last year's special session.

The panel was supposed to weed out frivolous lawsuits before they were filed in court, but was eliminated because of its enormous backlog.

The Senate Judiciary Committee introduced SB97 last week. The measure is modeled on a petition from the doctors group and would limit lawyer fees and strip away two exemptions from a $350,000 pain-and-suffering malpractice award cap.

The cap enacted last October left open exemptions for "special circumstances" and "gross negligence."

SB97 also allows doctors to make malpractice claim payments over time and limits liability of doctors partially involved in a medical procedure. It is set for a Senate panel hearing early next month.

Another bill from Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, tackles high malpractice premiums through insurance reforms. That measure, SB122, has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Matt Sharp, president of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, said he supported Titus' bill. He calls the "Keep Our Doctors In Nevada" organization a "fringe element" of doctors backed by insurance companies.

The group's lobbyist, Scott Craigie, also is registered as a lobbyist for the Alliance of American Insurers and Farmers Insurance Group, as well as the Nevada State Medical Association.

Sharp praised a forthcoming proposal from Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, which will include insurance reforms.