USA Today on Dec. 29, 2008, published an editorial and an opinion piece addressing physicians' use of defensive medicine to prevent medical malpractice lawsuits. Summaries of the pieces appear below. USA Today: "Against their better judgment, physicians practice 'defensive medicine' -- actions designed to protect themselves from lawsuits rather than serve patients' best interests" because the "threat of being sued is pervasive, and doctors simply don't trust the legal system," a USA Today editorial states. According to the editorial, the U.S. "liability system is too often a lottery," in which "[e]xcessive compensation is awarded to some patients and little or none to others." The editorial states, "Change is obviously needed." USA Today recommends that arbitration and mediation be used to "encourage quicker settlement of legitimate claims"; that states establish "specialized health courts, where experienced judges decide cases without juries by having impartial experts testify about whether an injury was preventable"; that states create "tougher error-reporting systems"; and that lawmakers create a "safe harbor" that would provide an "alternative to the courtroom and" give physicians "a chance to discuss errors without fear" (USA Today, 12/29/08).

Les Weisbrod, USA Today: "Doctors run more tests because it benefits patients, not because of liability concerns," Weisbrod, president of the American Association for Justice, writes in a USA Today opinion piece. Weisbrod continues that a Harvard University School of Public Health study found that 97% of medical malpractice lawsuits are valid, "proving only those with real injuries seek any recourse." He adds, "If we want to reform health care, reducing the 98,000 preventable deaths is where progress is desperately needed." According to Weisbrod, "Bar-coding machines, e-prescriptions, electronic medical records and recruiting more nurses will undoubtedly reduce the number of errors." Such "solutions are far cheaper than creating an expensive new bureaucracy, such as health courts, especially when medical malpractice claims are a tiny portion of the overall court docket," Weisbrod writes (Weisbrod, USA Today, 12/29/08). Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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