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Republicans press HHS on malpractice reform
The Obama administration hasn't lived up to its rhetoric on medical malpractice reform, congressional Republicans charged Wednesday.
Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Orrin Hatch and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) pressed the Health and Human Services Department on a grant program that was supposed to research various approaches to malpractice reform. But there's little to show for the money, the lawmakers said.
Obama said in a 2009 speech to a joint session of Congress that he was open to limits on lawsuits against doctors — a long-standing GOP priority. And the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded $23.2 million for studies on the issue. But real malpractice reform doesn't seem to be any closer, the Republicans said.
Obama and Republicans agree, at least rhetorically, that malpractice suits raise the cost of healthcare. They say doctors perform tests that are probably unnecessary because they're afraid of being sued if they don't.
Republicans want to cap non-economic damages in malpractice suits at $250,000, the approach favored by the American Medical Association. Obama has backed a different policy. He has said doctors who adhere to the best practices for their specialty should be immune from lawsuits altogether, but those who don't follow accepted guidelines should be subject to lawsuits without a cap on damages.
Republicans wanted the AHRQ fund to adhere to what they call "traditional" malpractice reforms.
"None of the $23.2 million awarded has gone to researching or implementing 'traditional' medical malpractice reforms and … it appears that all of the research funded by the AHRQ is aimed at proving the obvious: as the number of adverse events declines, the number of malpractice lawsuits also declines," a press release accompanying the letter states.
