 Oct. 17, 2002 |
| ASSEMBLY EDITION • SAN DIEGO |
It's a topic that strikes a chord with FPs and patients alike: America's "lawsuit culture." Patients are the biggest losers in this climate of justice run amok, said keynote speaker and attorney Philip Howard, J.D., in the opening address at the Scientific Assembly yesterday. However, those who deliver health care are harmed as well.
 "Because they distrust justice, physicians no longer feel free to act out their best judgment," Philip Howard, J.D., said in yesterday's keynote address on the liability crisis. |
Fear of the legal system has physicians hamstrung, Howard said. "Because they distrust justice, physicians no longer feel free to act out their best judgment."
It's time to question long-held assumptions about the legal system and our rights as citizens, said Howard. The perceived "right" to sue, in particular, Howard finds troubling.
Howard is author of The Death of Common Sense and The Collapse of the Common Good, and is chair of Common Good, a new bipartisan coalition dedicated to overhauling America's lawsuit culture.
Common Good is proposing a radical departure from the status quo, he said. "The only way to restore health to health care, we believe, is to establish an entirely new system of medical justice that affirmatively protects reasonable judgment as well as provides a mechanism for accountability for errors."
What the coalition has found has been startling: Most physicians distrust the justice system.
Thus, instead of practicing good medicine, physicians practice defensive medicine, said Howard. In a nationwide survey of medical professionals, many physicians admitted to ordering unnecessary tests, making unnecessary referrals and prescribing unnecessary drugs, all citing legal fear, said Howard. Physicians are reluctant to establish e-mail contact with patients out of fear that it leaves a record that could be used in litigation, he noted.
Courts have proved unpredictable. The practice of medicine in the 21st century is complicated, but judgments are decided by lay judges and lay courts. "No one has any idea what a court will do," said Howard. "We've lost the protection of law."
Enter into the fray the public's naivete. People often do not understand that the cost of large jury awards is passed on to the population at large through increased insurance premiums.
During a question-and-answer session, an attendee asked how to neutralize the influence of wealthy trial lawyers. "Trial lawyers have made millions of dollars but have done nothing to add to the growth of America. They're robbers," Howard said simply. He told FPs that they should not underestimate their own credibility. "The power of ideas is much stronger than the power of money," he said.
Another asked his views on tort reform. Tort reformers focus on setting caps on jury awards, missing the point that the problem originates with the right to sue, Howard said.
Howard urged attendees to get their patients involved and to write down their own personal accounts of how their lives have changed as a result of the legal system. Common Good has a Web site -- http://ourcommongood.com -- set up for people to give feedback.
After Howard addressed the AMA House of Delegates in June, that organization voted to make liability reform its top priority. FPs can only hope that his next speaking engagement will have similar results: Howard is scheduled to address the American College of Trial Lawyers on Friday.
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Copyright © 2002 by
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