Malpractice issue to go to voters

Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Clark County doctors emerged victorious in the battle over medical malpractice in the Legislature and now must turn their attention to the ballot box.

The Senate on Monday defeated by a 12-9 vote Senate Bill 97, which had been amended in the Assembly to put a second medical malpractice measure on the November 2004 ballot.

"We had a strong base of support," said Scott Craigie, lobbyist for the Southern Nevada physicians.

The amended SB97 mirrored the law passed in the special session last year that capped noneconomic damages to $350,000, with some exceptions, to alleviate the crisis in which malpractice insurance rates spiraled out of control. Doctors had sought to eliminate the exceptions and limit attorneys fees.

Craigie said the 2002 law isn't working. "The effect has been continued instability and a mini-crisis across the Las Vegas Valley," he said.

Desert Springs Hospital has closed its birthing center and emergency orthopedic services, and emergency room services at Sunrise are affected because physicians are concerned about their malpractice coverage, he said.

Craigie said malpractice rates have risen and two insurance companies have declined to write more policies.

The Nevada Trial Lawyers and some consumer groups have opposed the doctors' initiative. They proposed putting the malpractice law passed last summer on the ballot, to let the voters have a choice between the present law and the doctor's petition.

The Assembly put that idea into SB97 and it ended up in a Senate-House conference committee. When it reached the floor of the Senate the conference committee recommendation was defeated with two Democrats joining 10 Republicans.

Bill Bradley, representing the Nevada Trial Lawyers, said the loss was a "setback for the people who don't get an option to choose between two very different forms of medical negligence reports."

The law passed last summer "balanced the rights of catastrophically injured citizens and the need to ensure stability in the insurance market," Bradley said. "

After the defeat trial lawyers lobbied to get senators to change their minds and take another vote, but that was unsuccessful.

Voting against the Assembly version were Republicans Barbara Cegavske, Warren Hardy, Dennis Nolan, Ann O'Connell and Ray Rawson, all of Las Vegas; Ray Shaffer, R-North Las Vegas, Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, Randolph Townsend, R-Reno and Democrats Bob Coffin and Mike Schneider, both of Las Vegas.

While the malpractice bill was defeated, the Senate gave final legislative approval to Senate Bill 250, which sets some new guidelines doctors and the state Board of Medical Examiners.

The bill, which goes to the governor, requires doctors to submit to the board all claims against them for malpractice, whether a lawsuit has been filed or not. That information must be submitted before a doctor receives a physician's license or after he or she is practicing.

The board could use this information to begin an investigation whether disciplinary action was warranted.

The bill retains the present law that the board must find a preponderance of the evidence before a doctor's license can be revoked. The Senate initially wanted to require "clear and convincing evidence," a higher standard that would be required to pull the license of a doctor.

But the Assembly amended that section out.

SB250 requires there must be regular performance audits of the board. The Federation of State Medical boards of the United States would conduct this examination if the Legislative Commission agreed.

The bill also requires meetings of the medical examiners board must be held in a place so the general public can testify via telephone or video conference between Las Vegas and Carson City or Reno.