Physicians in Idaho now will be protected from exposure to new causes of action based on whether the physician complied with quality and delivery improvement initiatives outlined by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Idaho has become the second state to enact such legislation, and one of a number of states to recently introduce or pass innovative medical liability reforms.
Based on AMA model legislation, Idaho’s standard of care protection act was signed into law last month. The new law ensures physicians can exercise their clinical judgment without the potential for medical liability claims based on quality reporting programs or other performance metrics imposed by the ACA, Medicare and Medicaid, other states, or third party payers.
Five more states have introduced standard of care protection bills in the 2014 legislative session. A similar provision was part of bipartisan federal legislation (H.R. 4015) to replace Medicare’s sustainable growth rate payment formula, the policy framework for which still is under consideration by Congress. Separate bipartisan federal bills that offer the similar protections have been introduced in Congress by Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, and Representative Phil Gingrey, MD, R-Georgia (S. 1769/H.R. 1473).
Currently, 12 states are working through apology inadmissibility bills, including a piece of legislation in Alaska that is awaiting the governor’s signature. These bills would make physicians’ expressions of apology, sympathy or responsibility inadmissible in medical liability cases.
The law would allow physicians and patients to have a “full and open conversation after an unforeseen outcome without fear that anything said could be used against the physician in a medical liability lawsuit,” the AMA said in a letter of support for the bill, addressed to an Alaska state representative who introduced it to the legislature. “[It] does not take any legal right away from injured patients or impair their ability to file a personal injury action.”
In other medical liability reform news, bills introduced in Congress would eliminate the licensure and medical liability questions surrounding out-of-state physicians to lend their skills to victims of federally declared disasters, such as the situation in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
The AMA continues to work at the state and federal levels to enact more innovative reforms and defend previously passed laws as they are challenged. “Medical Liability Reform – Now!” (PDF) provides additional information about medical liability reform legislation, innovations and traditional provisions.
