Colorado Physicians, Trial Lawyers Tangle on Liability Measure

Colorado physicians have been engaged in an ongoing battle with that state's trial lawyers regarding a bill that would dramatically increase the amount of money patients and their trial attorneys can collect in malpractice awards.

In March, the Colorado Senate narrowly passed S.B. 164, (5-page PDF; About PDFs) a bill supported by the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association that would raise the cap on noneconomic damages in civil suits by 50 percent to more than $450,000. The bill also removes damage awards for physical disfigurement and impairment from the state's noneconomic damages cap entirely, thus opening the door for large jury awards.

According to the Colorado AFP, if the legislation is enacted, physicians, especially those in rural areas, may not be able to afford their malpractice insurance, and some may have to curtail or even eliminate services, which could lead to overall higher health care costs.

The Colorado House Judiciary Committee currently is considering the bill, and Colorado physicians and their allies in the House are confident they can defeat the measure before the state's legislative session ends later this spring.

The Colorado AFP and the AAFP's Division of Government Relations developed an e-mail alert campaign that warns Academy members in Colorado about the effects of the bill and urges them to contact their legislators about it.

"I think most people realize this malpractice bill is bad for the health of Colorado," said Brian Harrington, M.D., M.P.H., of Steamboat Springs, a member of the Colorado AFP Board of Directors. "We are trying to achieve access, affordability and quality of care for everybody in the state, and this medical malpractice bill undermines each of those pillars," he said.

During testimony against the bill in the state Senate, Harrington told lawmakers that although physicians want to see victims compensated in a timely manner and in full, S.B. 164 doesn't achieve that end.

The Senate bill, Harrington told lawmakers, "just throws money at an already unsatisfactory process."

He also told lawmakers that Colorado has a stable and sane malpractice climate, which is an important distinction from the situation in many other states and which serves as an effective recruiting tool to bring physicians into the state. "To have an important recruiting tool like that removed makes it all the harder for us to get physicians to come to rural Colorado," said Harrington.