Panel to examine solutions for malpractice issue

Erin Neff

Monday, March 18, 2002 | 8:45 a.m.

Now that Gov. Kenny Guinn has unveiled a short-term fix to the medical malpractice crisis, state lawmakers will begin thinking of a long-term solution.

The Subcommittee to Study Medical Malpractice will hold its first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Sawyer State Office Building.

"We will be examining long-term solutions to the problem," said Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, the subcommittee's chairwoman. "We'll start with an analysis of how we got into this problem, and then we'll look for ways out of it."

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins established the subcommittee earlier this month to examine skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance rates and their role in problems like emergency room overcrowding and nursing shortages.

Guinn last week pledged $250,000 from the state's emergency fund to help bankroll a state underwritten insurance plan for doctors as a stopgap measure to halt doctors from leaving the state when their malpractice insurance coverage expires.

Buckley said her subcommittee will examine civil justice reform, including caps on jury-awarded damages and better use of settlement judges.

"The judiciary has agreed to be involved," she said. "We'll get a perspective from the judges and an understanding of the juries and exactly how these cases play out."

Buckley said one of the key questions she would like to answer is whether the state provides enough protection to its residents in the event an insurance company goes out of business or decides to drop malpractice coverage.

"Should the state require longer notice be given before that can happen?" Buckley asked.

A number of doctors have already called for tort reform as a way to reduce their insurance rates.

But Buckley said her subcommittee will also debate whether enough is being done to screen out bad doctors.

"How does someone have 41 lawsuits against them and still practice?" she asked.

Members of the subcommittee are Sens. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, and Assemblymen Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, and Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville. Titus is the Senate Minority Leader and Hettrick is the Assembly Minority Leader. James and Anderson chair their house's Judiciary committees and Townsend chairs the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.

Tuesday's meeting is expected to serve as an overview of the problem, with representatives of Guinn's office and a report from the National Council of State Legislatures.

The meeting will be teleconferenced to Carson City and will be simulcast on the Internet by selecting "Listen to Live Meetings" on the legislature's website, www.leg.state.nv.us