Editorial: Solutions begin with oversight

Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | 9:20 a.m.

As Las Vegas Sun reporter Stacy Willis documented Sunday in an in-depth article on the medical malpractice issue in Nevada, the economic order that should ideally prevail in the delivery of health care has disintegrated over the past several years. Anxiety over money and legal issues now generates more discussions than healing. Patients, doctors and insurance companies offer multiple but conflicting solutions to the problem arising from the sudden and drastic escalation of medical malpractice premiums.

We see the need for a much larger presence by the state government, which has been weak in exerting its regulatory authority. Doctors, lawyers and insurance companies can argue forever, but the power of the state government to bring all parties together and pass and enforce laws, can, within a reasonable period of time, once again bring order to health care in Nevada.

As Sunday's article made clear, the answer to the medical malpractice issue cannot simply be one bold stroke, as in tort reform. It will require bold strokes in multiple areas. And among all the players, state regulators are in the best position to intervene -- but only if the Legislature makes it a top priority.

The legislative committee now studying the issue needs to realize there are a lot of places within the state's jurisdiction to begin searching for solutions. The state regulates the insurance industry. It oversees the practically toothless Medical Dental Legal Screening Panel, set up to ensure the validity of malpractice cases that go to court. The state has the power to enact some form of tort reform. It could strengthen its own insurance plan for doctors. It could keep better statistics. The medical malpractice issue has exposed the consequences of lax oversight. If the committee understands that, we'll be on the way to solving the problem.