AMA chief lobbies for damages caps

Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 8:47 a.m.

The leader of the American Medical Association is in Las Vegas today to drum up support for caps on the amount of money injured plaintiffs can collect from doctors in medical malpractice lawsuits.

Dr. Donald Palmisano, president of the 260,000-member organization, says his group stands ready to be a major financial contributor to the campaign to pass a ballot measure that would further restrict the malpractice judgments in Nevada.

He is likely to get a sympathetic reception tonight when he meets on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus with members of the Clark County Medical Society.

The New Orleans surgeon also was scheduled this morning to address insurance industry participants at a medical professional liability forum at the Bellagio.

"I am going to give them hope that this system will be fixed," Palmisano said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "The only question is when. The American public is in favor of fixing the system because their main concern is lack of access to care from medical specialists in times of need."

Palmisano said that in an effort to lower skyrocketing malpractice insurance costs, the AMA is supporting a November general election ballot measure in Nevada that would place a $350,000 cap on damages per case -- with no exceptions -- for pain and suffering. The initiative is known as Keep Our Doctors in Nevada.

Under current state law, there are exceptions to the cap for gross malpractice and for exceptional circumstances as deemed by the court. And the cap, with exceptions, applies to each plaintiff and defendant in a case.

The AMA donated $100,000 to back a successful ballot measure in Texas last year that placed a more rigid cap on damages for pain and suffering in that state. And Palmisano said his organization will consider monetary support for the Nevada initiative if doctors in this state ask for financial backing. The AMA considers Nevada to be one of 19 states in a medical malpractice crisis.

"When push comes to shove caps are passing at the state level, so Congress better pay attention," Palmisano said. "This issue is such a crisis that we have to work both at the state and federal level."

Plaintiffs' attorneys and other advocates for victims of malpractice argue that caps on damages take power away from juries and are unfair to injured people because limits on pain and suffering are artificial and may not properly compensate them for pain and suffering. Instead, they say, more should be done to regulate the insurance industry and keep track of medical errors so that flaws in the health care system can be corrected.

But doctors say they are being driven out of business or forced to limit their practices because of the high malpractice insurance costs.