The day is not far off when we will have real tort reform in this country.

Unfortunately, that will be a day after a school bus crashes, and there are no doctors around to save the children.

Catch anything?

Thus… why not set up a new program where patients will get truly significant discounts from physicians if they join a medical care membership “club”, agreeing to legally binding arbitration
as a more practical and less wasteful system to the current system.

The main criticism I have read with arbitration agreements is that they do not hold if someone signs one in the midst of a genuine illness. Thus a agreement would have to be signed by patient and doctor probably weeks in advance of activating the “membership”.
After membership activation the patient can see any provider in the membership provider roster and can expect significant savings while receiving medical care.

this being a voluntary program would pass muster on legal grounds.

Patients who wan’t less expensive care at the risk of settling a claim with an arbitration panel can do it.
Patients who wan’t full access to current legal remedies can stay in the same mode they are.

Patients who seek care with homepaths/alternative medicine providers can do so if they choose.

And that is one of the essential points that is overlooked by the tort reform zealots: the problem when it comes to malpractice is not the amount of money the insurance companies are making (they’re doing fine) or the rates the doctors have to pay, but rather the terrible physical and emotional damage that is done to so many unsuspecting patients who fall into the hands of careless or incompetent medical personnel. What is needed is a nationwide crackdown on malpractice, not a campaign to roll back the rights of patients who are injured. This is another utterly typical example of the Bush administration going to bat for those who are economically and politically powerful against those who are economically and politically weak.

My sentiments exactly.

You won’t catch me betting against you.

My only point is, the REASONS why that won’t happen in our lifetime. Tell me, if I could snap my fingers and magically create a government-funded worker’s comp style no-fault system for medical errors, would you object to it? As a physician, I would not necessarily have a problem with it.

The objections would be from:

1. the trial bar (where SMALL groups of lawyers would lose financially, though there would likely be more cases to shepherd through the system, for smaller fixed fees)

2. government (which would see the system explode financially) Right now, the system is financed by physicians, who pay out on one end, but fees limited on the other. With government, they would find expenses skyrocket, find they now have to pay for it, and would start ratcheting down what really constitutes a compensable error.

In other words, tort reform.

the model described by m seems plausible as it is voluntary. the problem with it is that it would require a nationwide marketing effort by doc’s and would need to offer at least a 25-35% savings in cost for provided services the patient to generate interest. this very well might fly with those who have HSA’s, have high deductibles for their before health insurance premiums kick in..or those 40 million or so folks who have no insurance.

I’m game.

For the land of the willy nilly lawsuits and the Home of the Fearful ?