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GEN: New Year. Same Ol' Stuff From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com) Wed Jan 7 11:51:24 2004 Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Next message: Gail Waldby: "Re: Mentioning Patient's Name In A Dictation" Previous message: RModugno@aol.com: "Re: Mentioning Patient's Name In A Dictation" Desperate county board calls for tort reform Tuesday, January 06, 2004 By The Leader-Metro East Bureau BELLEVILLE -- While trial lawyers are flocking to Metro-East Madison and St. Clair counties to file class action lawsuits, doctors and medical personnel are exiting. The situation has escalated to the point that U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) called Madison County a "judicial hellhole" in October. In the last days of 2003, St. Clair County board member Steve Reeb forced the passage of a county board resolution calling on state and federal officials to promote tort reform. Reeb is concerned that without such legislation, more and more doctors will leave his area due to the high cost of malpractice insurance. "We hope counties throughout the state will follow our lead and and put the pressure on. We are not going to give up because losing our doctors and other medical professionals is far too serious," Reeb said. Over the objections of the board's Chairman John Baricevic, Reeb was successful in passing the resolution with a 15 to 7 vote, with the support of Democratic East St. Louis board members. "We are the only county board that has passed a resolution for tort reform with teeth in it," Reeb said. "From here Chairman Baricevic will send the resolution to Senator Dick Durbin, who has been blocking tort reform." Over fifty doctors closed up their Metro-East medical practices last year and moved across the Mississippi River to Missouri. Reeb, 45, said the doctors and medical employees in St. Clair County are upset that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) resists local officials concerns about what is happening in their area, and appears to be blocking tort reform in favor of the trial lawyers. As a result, Madison and St. Clair county medical personnel have been holding rallies to draw attention to their plight. "Dick Durbin forgot the people when he voted 'no' to tort reform. He needs to wake up and realize what is good for the people in Illinois," said Kris Huckshold, a nurse with the Southern Illinois Surgical Consultants in Swansea. Senator Durbin's resistance to current federal tort reform legilsation was expressed on national media, "Even if tort reform were enacted this year doctors would not see their malpractice premiums fall until 2006 or 2007." Durbin is promoting legislation that would allow doctors and hospitals to claim a tax credit in 2003 and 2004 for a percentage of the insurance premiums they pay. The tax break would be twenty percent of the premium for doctors in high-risk specialties and ten percent for doctors with lower-risk practices like general medicine, dermatology and pathology. That's not the root of the problem, according to Reeb. "The passage of tort reform would prevent the awarding of unrealistic medical settlements," said Reeb. In October, Senator Fitzgerald expressed outrage at the situation in Madison County. “What’s wrong with this picture? Does anyone really think that it’s just an accident that these lawyers from all over the country are flocking into Madison County with their cases?” he asked. “Large nationwide class actions should be in federal court, not in some small county court in some remote location that has nothing to do with the parties or the case,” Fitzgerald said. “This is an abuse of the system -- plain and simple.” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy recently pointed out that in 2001, Madison County had more class action lawsuits per person than any other county in America. The number of class action lawsuits increased from two in 1998 to 39 during 2000. 43 were filed in 2001. Through the middle 2003, 39 suits had been filed. Trial lawyers flock to the Metro-East to file class action lawsuits with hopes of obtaining huge settlements such as $10.1 billion class-action judgment against Phillip Morris last year. County courts also awarded a $350 million settlement against AT & T and Lucent Technologies. Fitzgerald says that reasonable limits on awards should be put into place. County board member Reeb, who initiated the resolution, agrees with Fitzgerald. Reeb, who is also running for Chairman of the St. Clair County Board, said his concern about tort reform has nothing to do with his run for Board Chairman. He was responsible for the inclusion of Sections 4 and 5 of the resolution. Reeb said, "This is an issue of importance that I would be trying to solve, regardless of running for chairman." ------------------------------------------------------------- The newly-passed resolution says: ------------------------------------------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------- St. Clair County, Illinois Resolution No. 828-03-R A RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE REFORM OF ILLINOIS TORT LAWS WHEREAS, a medical liability crisis exists in the Metro-East area; and WHEREAS, numerous Metro-East physicians have closed their doors and moved their practices to neighboring states where tort reform has been passed, resulting in lower insurance rates and better medical services; and WHEREAS, some of the first physicians to leave were the Obstetricians that took care of more impoverished pregnant population who could not afford conventional insurance; and WHEREAS, over the past few years, jury awards have started to exceed the coverage given by the insurance companies and many insurance companies are no longer covering doctors, or are dramatically increasing the cost of coverage; and WHEREAS, this problem is exemplified in the Metro-East where juries hand out excessive awards and the end result is the loss of medical services in our communities; and WHEREAS, diminishing medical services means that families and businesses will not settle in our region, resulting in decreasing economic growth and a dwindling job market; and NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS THAT: 1) The retaining of our physicians is critical for the future growth of our region and our County. 2) The Illinois General Assembly takes immediate action to hold hearings and conduct a thorough investigation, in the upcoming legislative session, into the problem of escalating Medical Professional Liability Insurance rates; 3) The Illinois General Assembly works together with representatives of the Medical Community, the Insurance Community and the Legal Community and considers all reasonable proposals to address and correct the problem; 4) The Chairman and the members of the Board of St. Clair County, Illinois strongly support reform of Illinois¹ tort law and the education of juries about what consequences the excessive awards have on our region. 5) The Chairman, the members of the Board of St. Clair County, Illinois urge each of our local and state political representatives to clearly communicate to our United States senators the severity of this situation and the importance of passing the tort reform measures now pending in the United States Senate. Resolved by the Chairman and the members of the board of St. Clair County, Illinois this 29th day of December, 2003. ________ © 2004 Illinois Leader.com -- all rights reserved http://illinoisleader.com/news/newsview.asp?c=11138 art -- art fougner, md ich bin ein New Yorker Next message: Gail Waldby: "Re: Mentioning Patient's Name In A Dictation" Previous message: RModugno@aol.com: "Re: Mentioning Patient's Name In A Dictation"

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