David Dunlap, the President and CEO of Roper St. Francis Healthcare, wrote an op-ed in favor of “loser pays” in medical malpractice cases. Read the following paragraph carefully:
A recent survey on defensive medicine was completed by more than 900 physicians, with about 83 percent responding that they do practice defensive medicine. The cost for imaging services alone, such as X-rays and CT scans can cost thousands of dollars depending on the type of the study. Many of these are done to prevent the possibility of lawsuits. Roper St. Francis will do over 50,000 CT scans a year, and if just a fraction of those scans are eliminated, the savings would be significant.
With 65 acute care hospitals in our state, it's easy to see how the cost of defensive medicine quickly adds up into billions. And it's also easy to see how this unnecessary cost, which must be paid by someone, ends up costing all of us money in the form of higher physician and hospital bills and higher insurance premiums. Just think what would happen if the money directed to defensive medicine went to cover the uninsured instead.
Source: ‘Loser Pays' is a winning cure The Post and Courier - Charleston SC newspaper
Note that he walks a tightrope when he discusses doctors who practice “defensive medicine” and his hospital. He never comes right out and admits that anyone at his hospital does so. Why? Because he would then be admitting that he is aware that doctors at his hospital are breaking federal law. You see, it is actually illegal for a doctor to bill an insurer for a test he or she feels is not medically necessary. The terms of every insurance contract require doctors to only order procedures they feel are medically necessary, and several federal laws prohibit so-called defensive medicine. Some doctors don’t worry about the legal implications of admitting they’re breaking federal law, but this CEO is smart enough not to do so.
Often, whistleblower lawsuits are filed against hospitals who rip off the federal government by billing Medicare or Medicaid for unnecessary medical procedures. Those whistleblower lawsuits force lawbreakers to reimburse the federal government for the money they stole from taxpayers through fraudulent billing. A written admission from the CEO that doctors at his hospital bilk taxpayers by running unnecessary tests would likely be Exhibit A in such a lawsuit.
Also note this sentence in the article:
We already have a form of Loser Pays and that's automobile liability insurance. If an accident is your fault, you pay. We've all learned to live with it. So why not adopt loser pays for health care?
Mr. Dunlap either does not understand how “Loser Pays” works, or he’s lying to persuade those less-informed than he is. Loser Pays doesn’t change who is liable in a lawsuit. Under either the existing model, or under loser pays, if a jury finds the defendant at fault, the defendant pays. What changes with “loser pays” is that if you lose a lawsuit, you’re responsible for the attorney fees of the other side. Mr. Dunlap’s comparison to an auto accident is completely off-base. I suspect that as the President and CEO of a hospital he knows his comparison rings false. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
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