House okays malpractice awards cap

It plans a final vote Friday on the bill, which is expected to face major Senate resistance.

By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 20, 2003

TALLAHASSEE -- The House approved a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice pain-and-suffering awards Wednesday, part of a package aimed at solving what lawmakers call a crisis in health care.

A final House vote is scheduled for Friday, but the preliminary approval sets up a showdown with the Senate, where capping what a jury can award is expected to encounter major resistance during a Health, Aging and Long-term Care Committee meeting today.

"I would predict that caps ... will not survive the committee," said Chairman Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples.

During Wednesday's nearly four-hour debate, the Republican-led House stripped out a provision that would have allowed adult children to file wrongful-death suits on behalf of their parents and beat back efforts by Democrats to force insurance companies to immediately reduce premiums.

Without a rollback, Democrats predicted the bill would have little effect on the insurance market, where skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance premiums have forced doctors and hospitals to close their doors or stop high-risk care, such as obstetrics.

"The only way to help physicians is an immediate freeze and rollback. It's a sugar bill; it's going to do absolutely nothing," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.

House Health Committee Chairman Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, said it was too dangerous to roll back premiums when so few insurance companies are offering medical malpractice policies.

Just a few years ago, 66 companies offered malpractice insurance, Farkas said. "Today as we speak there are four -- four out of 66. Who are you going to roll back on?"

Gelber failed to get an amendment passed that would have immediately suspended the license of a doctor against whom three major malpractice cases had been filed in four years.

Democrats killed, at least for now, an amendment that would have given emergency room workers and private ambulance companies sovereign immunity from lawsuits -- essentially granting them the same protections as police officers. Democrats said the amendment could cost the state money but hadn't been debated in an appropriations committee.

The Senate panel takes up a medical malpractice package this afternoon. It's the same committee that removed pain-and-suffering caps on nursing home lawsuits last week. That prompted House members who served on a special nursing home committee to write to nursing home bill sponsor Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, to tell her they planned to file her bill.

The Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers hopes to have another committee meeting like last week's. "We're going to do everything we can to defeat" caps, said Lake Lytal, co-chairman of the academy's medical malpractice task force.

Despite the real chance of trouble for caps in today's Senate committee meeting, Florida Medical Association lobbyist Sandy Mortham said she thinks the House and Senate will eventually agree on a bill that includes a cap.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright