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A bill that would allow more lawsuits for medical malpractice cleared its second Senate panel Tuesday over strong objections from health care and business lobbyists who say they would favor the proposal if it included caps on damages.
Sen. Clay Yarborough said he is continuing to fine tune the proposal (SB 734) that, if passed, would allow parents of single, childless, adult children (and adult children of single parents) to sue physicians and hospitals for noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering. The law doesn’t allow that now. That’s because they were left out of a 1990 law that expanded the class of survivors entitled to recover damages
for pain and suffering for a wrongful death.
“I remain open and willing to consider changes that some would like to make, though we must pursue a solution that can secure support from both chambers and thus prevent the exceptions from remaining on our books for what would be 36 years if we don’t do something this year,” Yarborough said as he closed the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee debate on the bill. “The bill is about accountability, the value of life, ensuring our laws are just.”
The bill passed by an 8-2 vote with Sens. Colleen Burton and Gayle Harrell voting no. Those senators during debate said the state could enhance its regulations over providers to increase accountability in lieu of increasing potential civil liability. Harrell, a longstanding champion of physicians in the Florida Legislature, added that the bill could open doctors and hospitals to wrongful death litigation from children who have been estranged from their parents.
David Mica, executive vice president for public affairs for the Florida Hospital Association, told the panel that physicians in Miami Dade County pay the highest medical malpractice rates in four areas of medicine in the country: family practice, obstetrics, emergency medicine, and orthopedics.
Mica told the committee that he’d spoken with a top 100-rated South Florida hospital that morning. An official at the facility, which he did not name, said its reinsurance rates increased by 76% year-over-year and 101% over the past three years. For the first time in the hospital’s history, Mica said, it was procuring coverage from an insurance company with a less than A-rating.
“That’s not how this system should work,” Mica said.
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Mica, as well as representatives of the state’s largest business associations, wants senators to cap the amount in damages that plaintiffs can recover. Not just for the new suits that would be allowed under the proposal, but for all medical malpractice cases.
I remain open and willing to consider changes that some would like to make though we must pursue a solution that can secure support from both chambers and thus prevent the exceptions from remaining on our books for what would be 36 years if we don’t do something this year.
– Sen. Clay Yarborough
Yarborough filed similar legislation last year but had to amend it to include a $500,000 damages limit per claimant for practitioners and $750,000 for “non-practitioners” to move it through its first committee stop. The cap was a non-starter in the Florida House and the bill died.
Florida Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Carolyn Johnson told members the bill would “significantly increase ligation.”
It would inflate medical malpractice insurance rates that are already highest in the nation, she said. That, in turn, would lead to higher health care costs for consumers and businesses. As a result, she continued, fewer physicians would practice in Florida, “exacerbating Florida’s already medical professional shortage.”
Johnson said the Florida Chamber supported Yarborough’s bill last year with its medical malpractice caps but that without them, “unfortunately, we have to stand here in opposition today.”
From bad to worse?
Yarborough stressed that he didn’t intend to criticize the health care delivery system, although plenty of criticism of Florida’s physicians and hospital system was aired during the debate by proponents of the bill, who shared their stories of medical malpractice.
Opponents said the legislation would make a bad situation worse. Villages Resident Bob Harris said there are 12 houses on his block, 11 of which are occupied by residents who hail from 10 different states.
“You can talk about pickle ball and golf for a couple of minutes, then you talk about quality [of health care],” he said. He and his peers, he said, are looking for stability, long term relationships with providers they trust and access to specialists.
“We have two neighbors who travel to their home state for their health care. They are full- time residents of Florida, and that’s why — it’s because they can’t get here what they need in health care,” Harris said.
SB 734 heads to the Rules Committee next. The House Civil Justice earlier this month voted unanimously to pass HB 6017, the companion bill. The legislation heads to the House Judiciary Committee next, the last committee before the full House can take a vote.
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