Doctor groups call on Senate to pass medical liability reform. (Cap On Noneconomic Damages).

NEW ORLEANS -- Calling the medical liability system an abomination, representatives from three major medical organizations joined forces at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and called upon the U.S. Senate to pass tort reform capping noneconomic damages at $250,000 in medical malpractice cases.

H.R. 5, the HEALTH Act (Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-Cost, Timely Health Care), passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in April, also limits punitive damages and attorney contingency fees and shortens the statute of limitations. It does not limit economic damage awards. At an ACOG press conference held during the meeting, the physicians called for quick action by the Senate to improve chances that the bill will be signed into law this year.

Reform is imperative if patient access to care is to be maintained and if physicians are to continue practicing medicine, representatives from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the American Medical Association, and ACOG agreed.

Average annual malpractice insurance premiums for emergency physicians are 56% higher in 2003 than in 2002, and now average $53,500. In some states premiums have increased by up to 300%, and more than half of all emergency physicians pay at least $150,000 per year, said Dr. George Molzen, president of ACEP.

Emergency rooms are closing--permanently or temporarily--across the country as a result of skyrocketing insurance premiums and damage awards, he said.

Ob.gyns. are second only to neurologists in the amount of premiums paid annually Ob.gyns. are sued an average of 2.5 times in the course of their careers, and the median award for medical liability in childbirth cases was $2.05 million, said Dr. Thomas Purdon, a past president of ACOG.

As physicians turn away from higher risk procedures, access to care is diminishing. Declining interest in obstetrics ...