HMOs Safe From Malpractice Suits

* The May 4 Orange County Voices article by Haydee V. Tillotson regarding the trial lawyers’ attack on the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, specifically the medical malpractice limit on damages for “pain and suffering,” was a good summary of the facts but left out one important issue.

As managed care becomes near universal in California, doctors are under intense pressure to reduce patients’ access to expensive technology and specialist referral.

Many of these cases involve what could be called “defensive medicine.” As the HMOs prevent doctors from using defensive medicine because of cost concerns, and at the same time create forces which may impact the quality of care, the HMOs themselves are largely protected from any malpractice liability for bad outcomes.

This is due to [an] exemption in federal law. Malpractice suits can only be filed against the physician although his or her judgment may have been overruled by the HMO. A potential solution has been proposed in Congress that would strip the HMO of immunity for malpractice.

The trial lawyers would do all of us a favor if they would spend their money supporting real malpractice reform. They might even make some money suing HMOs for malpractice and, purely by accident perhaps, improve health care quality.

MICHAEL KENNEDY, M.D.

Orange

* Regardless of the language or the subject, if it’s an issue important to Haydee Tillotson, she will master the tools necessary to communicate with the rest of us and advocate a common sense approach.

Trial lawyers lobbying for their positions and the medical profession for theirs only leaves the consumer perhaps with a loss regardless of which interest group prevails.

DAVE GAROFALO

City Council Member

Huntington Beach