Medical Malpractice Troubles in New York

Susy Owen

Attorney

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A report named "A Self-Inflicted "Crisis:" New York's Medical Malpractice Insurance Troubles Caused By Flawed State Rate Setting and Raid on Rainy Day Fund' was released this week by Public Citizen, New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and the Center for Medical Consumers. The report concludes that New York's government in the 1990s are responsible for the so-called medical malpractice "crises" in that state.

The report urges Govenor Spitzer to focus on ways to improve public safety and to resist pleas from the insurance industry and state doctors to reduce the legal rights of patients. The report details the falsehood of the claims that a recent 14 percent increase in medical malpractice was a result of an increase in litigation. There were actually fewer medical malpractice payments over the past five years than in any other five-year period on record, according to the federal National Practitioner Data Bank.

Claims have even been made that increased rates caused a shortage of doctors in New York. The reality is, the population of doctors is at an all time high in New York. The report goes on to state the real reasons for the increase, which is due to the state trying to make-up for a period of eight years when the state held rates stagnant. Additionally, the report states, the state took almost $700 million in the 1990s from the rainy day fund of the program that covers high-risk doctors. The truth is, it is only about 1 percent of New York's doctors are enrolled in the state's program for physicians deemed too risky by commercial insurance providers. As Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook put it "It is unconscionable that such a small number of doctors could be allowed to make so many mistakes that they could throw an entire state's insurance system into crisis. New York needs to take a hard look at whether these doctors should be allowed to continue practicing, and it needs to put dangerous doctors out of business."

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.