House Approves Malpractice Deal, Sends It Back To Gregoire

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By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

The bill earned support from both political parties, although lawmakers conceded that work remains to resolve the long-running dispute between doctors and trial lawyers.

Story Published: Feb 28, 2006 at 4:44 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 2:13 AM PDT

House Approves Malpractice Deal, Sends It Back To Gregoire
OLYMPIA - House lawmakers approved a carefully crafted medical malpractice compromise on Tuesday, sending the deal back to one of its key negotiators - Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The bill, amended in the Senate and returned to the House for concurrence, earned support from both political parties, although lawmakers conceded that work remains to resolve the long-running dispute between doctors and trial lawyers.

"There are things left undone in this bill," said the measure's sponsor, Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor. "But there are wonderful things done."

Some GOP lawmakers complained the Legislature was excluded from the weeks of closed-door negotiations that produced the bill. Gregoire organized those talks, and has been widely praised for bringing together warring groups.

Rep. Skip Priest, R-Federal Way, said Gregoire and others involved in the malpractice deal must fulfill their pledges to keep working for further changes to the system.

"If there aren't continuing meetings over the next year ... then I personally will be very disappointed," Priest said. "We have many, many more steps to do."

The malpractice bill, which passed the House on a 82-15 vote Tuesday, would make changes in the areas of medical safety, civil liability and insurance regulation. Highlights include:

-Requiring hospitals to report serious medical problems, such as those resulting in patient death or injury, to the state Health Department within two days of learning about them.

-Giving the state insurance commissioner authority to approve malpractice rate increases before they go into effect and to collect more information about closed malpractice claims.

-Setting up a system of voluntary arbitration for malpractice cases, with maximum awards limited to $1 million and no right to a new trial when appealing the arbitration.

Trial lawyers and doctors have argued for years about changing the malpractice system, which typically uses the courts to secure compensation for patients injured by medical care.

The two sides waged acrimonious initiative campaigns last fall, spending some $14 million and setting a new high mark for initiative campaign costs.

Voters defeated both measures, which sent the parties into negotiations.

Some major issues from those campaigns were left out of the Legislature's compromise bill, including caps on jury awards in civil suits and "three-strikes" license revocations for medical professionals.

"Let's not go home and brag too much. The citizens out there are a lot smarter than we think," said Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, ranking GOP member of the House Health Care Committee.

"They're not going to pat us on the back too much. They're going to say 'Nice start,"' Hinkle said.

Gregoire's office said the governor would sign the bill into law on Monday.

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The malpractice bill is House Bill 2292.