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NY State publishes malpractice histories
From: Bruce Speyer (bruce.speyer@medispecialty.com)
Tue, 10 Oct 2000 09:39:11 -0500
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WILLIAM SHERMAN and RUSS BUETTNER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERSA landmark bill opening the secret malpractice histories of New York's most-sued doctors will be signed into law tomorrow by Gov. Pataki.
For the first time, patients will be able to use the Internet to compare the size and number of malpractice payments doctors have made.
The Web site will include other never-before-available information, including doctors' resumes and any disciplinary actions taken against them by hospitals.
"The governor believes this legislation will protect patients with important information they can use when making health care decisions," said Pataki spokesman Michael McKeon.
Under pressure from the doctors' lobby, the legislation had been dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled state Senate for several years.
But it gained momentum in March after a Daily News investigation revealed New York's 15 most-sued medical practitioners. The series showed that most doctors rarely make payments in malpractice suits - but a small group of physicians do so over and over and are seldom disciplined.
State Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau), who introduced the bill, credited The News with breaking the Albany deadlock.
"I think this a major leap forward in patient information and protection," he said. "And the backdrop of the whole bill is very much the Daily News, the information that was published and developed in your series."
The Medical Society of the State of New York, a doctors' group, continued to fight after the bill passed in June and maintains that malpractice payment histories aren't "a reliable measure of physician competence," a spokesman said.
Though they lost the war, the doctors won a key concession. A physician's first two malpractice payments won't be revealed unless the state health commissioner makes an exception.
That threshold didn't appear in earlier bills, first championed by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan).
Still, Gottfried said yesterday: "The enactment of this law is a tremendous victory for consumers. The consumer will no longer have to launch a professional investigation to find out if their doctor, hospital or HMO is competent."
Consumers could see the first information within months. But the state Health Department will hold public hearings on format issues before releasing the malpractice and criminal conviction histories, a spokesman said.
Officials also credited several women who organized grass-roots support for the bill, including Caren Cantinella, whose daughter Emma died at 3 after a fatal infection allegedly was misdiagnosed as the flu.
"It's too little, too late for me," Cantinella said. "But hopefully, not for others. I really hope that I helped save other kids."
Source: New York Daily News
-- Bruce Speyer, CTO Home of OTOHNS.net http://www.otohns.net MediSpecialty.com A Physician Directed Network +001 512-835-1111 ext 227 and OBGYN.net http://www.obgyn.net 512-835-6112 fax, 512-632-3455 cell The Universe of Women's Health EMAIL: bruce.speyer@medispecialty.com
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