New York State: Governor Paterson proposes another important bill to combat medical malpractice
In the latest New York State medical malpractice news. The proposed bill by the New York PIRG is calling for increased review of doctors, in an effort to increase health and combat medical malpractice:
The proposed bill calls for several changes in OPMC procedures and the laws in order to give New Yorkers better protection from the harm that substandard doctors can inflict.
First, malpractice payments made by a doctor would be continually reviewed to determine whether further investigation and action is required by OPMC. While a malpractice payment does not automatically equate with professional misconduct, high numbers of lawsuits appear to be a red flag identifying substandard doctors. According to the federally run National Practitioner Data Bank, “Generally the data [collected by the data bank] show that as a physician’s number of Malpractice Payment Reports increases the likelihood that the physician has Adverse Action Reports also increases.” Adverse action reports are actions taken against a licensee. There is also evidence that a relatively small number of doctors are responsible for a disproportionate number of malpractice payouts.
Second, the law would be changed to permit the public to know when a doctor has been formally charged by OPMC. At present the only information made public by the state is the final action sanctioning a licensee. While OPMC had tried to make the doctor disciplinary process more transparent years back, a court ruled in 1993 that formal charges could not be published unless the law was changed to permit it.
For more about this bill, check out the New York PIRG report for this public health and malpractice bill.