Medical Liability Limits by Paul Kivela

It’s common sense, really, that the fear of lawsuits would lead to unnecessary medical tests. The federal government has reported that defensive medicine is driving up the cost of health care for everyone, estimating that cost to be billions of dollars each year.

The lack of medical-liability limits has also been linked to work-force shortages in medicine, especially among specialists needed to see patients in emergency departments.

Emergency medicine is a unique specialty in that nearly every patient is new. Emergency physicians quickly have to determine a course of action without having prior knowledge of the patient’s medical history, like previous surgeries or allergies.

In addition, hospital emergency departments are unique in that they have a federal mandate to screen and stabilize everyone who comes through the door, regardless of ability to pay. We also care for the most severely ill and injured patients who are at greatest risk of dying.

Liability protections need to be in place for physicians who provide federally mandated emergency services. It would not only save a lot of money, but it would also help ensure that emergency physicians and the on-call medical specialists that are needed will be there.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/opinion/letters/medical-liability.html