Lawyers, doctors ready for turf war

Amid talk of limiting malpractice suits, lawyers counter with a bid to strip doctors of their licenses.

By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 17, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- On Monday, doctors talked about their plans to limit medical malpractice lawsuits by pouring money into Republican legislative campaigns.

On Tuesday, an association of trial lawyers made clear they are ready to fight back.

The lawyers group filed plans Tuesday seeking two constitutional amendments with the state under the name Floridians for Patient Protection. One amendment would strip doctors of their licenses if a court or state board finds they have committed medical malpractice three times.

The other amendment would open records that doctors, hospitals and other health care facilities keep on incidents when patients are harmed. Some of those incidents must be reported to the state but not all are public record. The second constitutional amendment would make even internal records of health care facilities open to the public -- and to their trial attorneys.

"The constitutional amendments would protect the public from repeated medical malpractice and give the public a right to know if their health care providers have a history of medical negligence," Floridians for Patient Protection said in a statement.

Both initiatives, if they pass court review and collect enough signatures, will go on the ballot in 2004.

That's the same year the Florida Medical Association plans to put a measure on the ballot capping pain and suffering damages at $250,000 in medical malpractice suits. Doctors estimate they will have to raise at least $20-million in the fight that will put them head to head with the trial attorneys.

Doctors also hope to get a bill passed in 2003 that would limit who can be an expert witness in a medical malpractice suit. They say lawmakers need to curb skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance premiums.

Doctors in some specialties considered "high-risk" are being asked to pay $100,000-per-year premiums for $250,000 worth of coverage. Some Florida obstetricians have been charged premiums of $200,000, according to the Florida Medical Association.

This is forcing some doctors to retire, move to other states where insurance still can be bought or stop practicing in highly specialized, high risk fields.

"It's a question of, can my wife and daughter get mammograms next year? That's what I'm worried about," Karl Altenburger, an Ocala allergist, said last week.

Altenburger wrote a letter to other Marion County doctors last week, saying they needed to bring $10,000 to meetings next month with Senate president designee Jim King of Jacksonville and Plant City Rep. Johnnie Byrd, next year's presumed speaker of the House.

But critics of limiting lawsuits, including the trial lawyers, say the real culprits in rising medical malpractice premiums are the insurance companies. A recent Wall Street Journal investigation noted that many companies offering malpractice insurance cut their premiums to build their market share. Those companies expected other investments to make up the profit difference. But, like others who invested, those companies didn't see the profits they expected and now are raising rates.

And the trial lawyers say patients -- and their lawyers -- shouldn't be the ones to have their rights curtailed.

"Our strategy is really to try and separate the myths and misconceptions from the truth of what is going on," Floridians for Patient Protection chairman Scott Carruthers said last week when he first heard of doctors' plans.

-- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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