Guinn wants doctors, lawyers to meet

Erin Neff

Monday, June 10, 2002 | 10:43 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has spent hours meeting with doctors and lawyers separately in the past week, but at a news conference today he was expected to ask both parties to start talking to each other.

But because doctors, lawyers and insurance company representatives are far apart in their suggested solutions to the medical malpractice crisis, it is unlikely a compromise will be reached to allow Guinn to call a special session of the Legislature.

The governor said last month that he would be willing to call an extra session to address the crisis if doctors, lawyers and insurance companies could come up with a compromise. He wants an agreement first, so that the Legislature doesn't get bogged down in weeks of emotional testimony, time that would cause the cost to escalate.

Last week Guinn met separately with lawyers and several doctor representatives, while some lawyers and doctors sat down together apart from the governor to discuss potential reform. Insurance company representatives also have had the governor's ear, but they have not started talking to the other parties.

"There have been people quietly sitting down to discuss this," Las Vegas attorney Jim Crockett said.

But the issue has become emotionally charged, making it difficult to find common ground. Even if a group of negotiators hammers out a proposal, there will still be some doctors opposed, Jim Wadhams, a lobbyist for a number of insurance companies, said.

"It is difficult to get to a comfort level when emotional rhetoric is still taking center stage," Wadhams, said. "If the governor called a special session today to deal with medical malpractice, it would go on for days, because people are still staking out their emotional territory."

The insurance industry favors caps on non-economic jury awards as a way to make the Las Vegas market more profitable for insurers, he said. Currently there's no reason for an insurer to write policies in Southern Nevada due to the market conditions, he said.

The crisis in Las Vegas began late last year when the St. Paul Cos. -- the state's largest malpractice insurer -- pulled out of the market.

When doctors went looking for other insurance, they either couldn't find it or were quoted rates that made it impossible for them to renew policies.

Guinn established a state-run underwriting association to offer insurance and tail coverage -- which covers lawsuits over prior acts -- as a temporary solution.

Still doctors are clamoring for more permanent fixes.

Last week a society representing about 210 anesthesiologists joined obstetricians in asking Guinn to call a special session. Urologists and trauma surgeons working at University Medical Center have also called for a special session. All of the groups have publicly supported liability caps and reiterated that support last week.

Those statements hit a sour note with those on the other side of the negotiating table.

"You've got people out there ostensibly leading the charge and going to the media with their problems," attorney Crockett said.

Some doctors' representatives, including Clark County Medical Society president Dr. Raj Chanderraj said they think it is too soon to expect the parties to reach consensus.

"We're waiting for the governor to do something," Chanderraj said. "It's too premature at this time. The governor will have to take that stand."

Others, including Nevada State Medical Association executive director Larry Matheis, said doctors are ready to talk with the insurers and trial lawyers.

Matheis said he believes consensus can be reached on a host of issues related to the crisis -- insurance monitoring, the medical screening panel and patient compensation funds, to name a few.

"I think with the exception of the civil justice part -- the caps -- there are a whole list of ideas we could agree on or come up with solutions to," Matheis said.

Crockett's association is adamant that a proposed $250,000 cap on non-economic damages will reduce neither insurance premiums nor health-care costs.

"I think that the insurance companies are getting the doctors all fired up about stuff," Crockett said. "The doctors, understandably, are sweating bullets and some of them will tell us they are supporting the caps to appease the insurance companies."

But Matheis said some form of cap -- whether by amount or in concert with other changes -- will have to be approved.

Guinn also said he supports a $250,000 cap on non-economic jury awards, but such a reform will be a tough sell in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.

Wadhams said that ultimately all of the parties are going to have to begin talking and establishing a "range of tolerance."

"That kind of discussion is going to have to happen in order to give the governor and the Legislature some sense of where this is going," Wadhams said.