Kentucky Group Pushing Medical Review Panels
Posted in Featured Articles on December 30, 2011The Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities has proposed legislation that would require all potential lawsuits against nursing homes to be evaluated by a medical review panel before going to trial. The panel would consist of three physicians chosen by the parties. They argue that this would put a stop to frivolous lawsuits that are being encouraged by trial attorneys.
Although the legislation hasn’t been filed yet, the Kentucky Justice Association, an attorneys’ organization, and Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, an advocacy group, have already announced their opposition to the proposal. Both groups note that the proposal would make it more difficult to hold Kentucky nursing homes accountable for neglect and abuse.
Maresa Fawns, the executive director of the Kentucky Justice Association, argued that if nursing homes want to decrease the number of lawsuits, they should increase their staffing levels and provide better care.
Bernie Vonderheide, the founder of Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the proposal was blatantly unfair to the residents of Kentucky’s nursing homes. He asked members of his group and others interested in nursing home advocacy to contact House Speaker Greg Stumbo (D-Prestonsburg) and ask him to oppose the proposal.
Twenty other states require medical review panels, including neighboring Indiana. Not all of these are specific to nursing homes; they may include lawsuits against other medical providers as well, such as physicians or hospitals. However, roughly thirty states have repealed their medical review panels or had them invalidated. In Illinois, for example, the state Supreme Court determined that medical review panels are unconstitutional because they vest judicial powers in the non-judicial members of the panel. In Nevada, the panels were repealed after plaintiffs experienced long delays because doctors and other panelists would fail to show up.
Supporters of implementing medical review panels in Kentucky argue that they will reduce frivolous lawsuits by having physicians determine the merits of the case before it goes to court. This, they say, will also lower medical malpractice insurance and eventually lower nursing home costs. The proposal would not prevent anyone from filing a lawsuit, whatever decision the panel makes; however, the results of that decision would be admissible in court. The Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities claims that there has been a drastic increase in lawsuits in Kentucky and that some attorneys present misleading advertisements about nursing homes.
Opponents of the proposal argue that its purpose is to insulate nursing home corporations by making it more difficult and more expensive to file a lawsuit. In many cases, the plaintiff is effectively forced to mount two trials, one for the panel review board and then a second in court. New Hampshire implemented medical review panels in 2005; a state legislative committee recently looked at the results. Both oral and written testimony before the committee showed that the costs of medical negligence lawsuits have increased, and that these panels may well have deterred the filing of legitimate cases. Moreover, there is no evidence that there has been any impact on malpractice insurance rates.
Opponents also worry that there may be conflicts of interest between the panel experts and the defendant physicians, who may know each other socially or professionally. And counter-intuitively, some studies actually show that the number of lawsuits has increased after a state institutes medical review panels.
Residents of Kentucky nursing homes have the right to a safe and healthy home. They are among our most vulnerable citizens. Nursing homes are required by law to protect them from abuse and neglect. When a nursing home fails in that duty, Kentucky citizens have the right to take them to court in a civil trial. Medical review panels, which have unclear effects on frivolous lawsuits and malpractice insurance rates, nonetheless have a clear effect in deterring legitimate lawsuits. The Kentucky legislature should refuse to support this legislation.
More Information:
Kentucky group wants panel to review lawsuits against nursing homes
Gregory Stumbo
Litigation screening panels on trial: Are they working?
The jury’s still out on malpractice panels
