Pressure on lawmakers to solve medical crisis

Monday, July 15, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

Now that University Medical Center's trauma unit has reopened, all eyes are on Nevada lawmakers to see whether they can find a solution to the issue of skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance rates.

After helping announce Saturday's reopening, Gov. Kenny Guinn said the issue of caps on damages for pain and suffering would be the key to any debate on tort reform.

That debate is expected to be a centerpiece of the special legislative session Guinn has said he will convene the week of July 29 in Carson City.

"If you can come to a resolution on caps, all the other elements will fall into place," Guinn said.

Doctors are pushing for adoption of a tort reform law passed in California in 1975. The law, known as the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, includes a $250,000 cap on damages for pain and suffering.

Although Guinn favors tort reform, he expressed doubt that Nevada would adopt a cap of the same amount. Guinn said Utah and other states that have caps on non-economic damages have adopted clauses that periodically adjust the caps upward for inflation.

"It won't be $250,000," he said. "California is working hard to change that right now. Utah did their law and it includes an escalation clause."

Guinn also said he is not convinced that Nevada should adopt all other aspects of California's law.

"There are some elements of (the California law) we might not want to adopt because our laws are better," he said.

Dr. Michael Daubs, an orthopedic surgeon and president of the Nevada Orthopedic Society, and some of his colleagues agreed to return to the trauma center for at least 45 days after they were made part-time employees of county-run UMC and placed under its $50,000 liability cap.

But Daubs said he and fellow doctors want the state to adopt a $250,000 cap. He said California's tort reform law is the only one in the nation that has worked to the doctors' satisfaction.

"Obviously, we are shooting for $250,000, because we know it has worked in California," he said. "If it's close to that number, we'll all have to look at that and see if it helps stabilize our malpractice insurance rates."

Up to now Nevada lawyers have resisted tort reform, because they argue such laws allow insurance companies to take advantage of injured patients.

Accounting for inflation, Las Vegas malpractice attorney Gerald Gillock said the $250,000 cap adopted by California in 1975 should be $862,000 today.

"I could live with an $862,000 cap on any case except death, dismemberment and brain damage," Gillock said. "Instituting the cap is the easy part. Developing the system around it so that it works is very difficult. Insurance companies aren't going to play fair, even with a cap."

Fellow Las Vegas attorney Dean Hardy, past president of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, said he doesn't favor any caps.

"Our jury system works appropriately," Hardy said. "We should allow the jury to make that decision."

Hardy and Gillock are among the doctors, lawyers and insurance industry representatives who have been meeting privately to come up with recommendations to be forwarded to Guinn. The governor has set a July 24 deadline for those recommendations. He said he will then submit his proposals to legislators before the special session begins.

If lawmakers do not reach agreement on tort reform to the physicians' liking, there is a chance the trauma center will close again.

Dr. Anthony Serfustini, UMC chief of orthopedics, warned that there could be a mass exodus of doctors from Southern Nevada if the medical malpractice insurance issue is not resolved.

"If the Legislature doesn't do the right thing, this will probably set back medicine in Nevada 25 years," Serfustini said. "It's time for lawmakers to get a mitt and get into this game of tort reform."