Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Medical Malpractice Developments In Arizona, Illinois

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 19 Nov 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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Summaries of recent developments related to medical malpractice in two states appear below.

• Arizona: Arizona Senate Health Committee Chair Carolyn Allen (R) this year plans to reintroduce a bill that would make medical malpractice lawsuits against emergency department physicians more difficult for plaintiffs to win, the Capitol Media/Arizona Daily Star reports. The legislation would require plaintiffs to prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that the care provided by physicians did not meet accepted professional standards. The state Legislature in 2006 passed an identical bill, but Gov. Janet Napolitano (R) vetoed the legislation, which she said would not encourage physicians to work in EDs (Fischer, Capitol Media/Arizona Daily Star, 11/13).
  
  
• Illinois: Cook County Judge Diane Larsen has declared unconstitutional a 2005 state law that caps noneconomic damages in malpractice lawsuits at $500,000 in cases against physicians and $1 million in cases against hospitals, the Chicago Tribune reports. Larsen ruled that the caps violate a clause in the state constitution that separates the powers of state Legislature and judiciary. The case likely will move to the Illinois Supreme Court, which twice in the past 30 years has stuck down state laws that sought to cap damages in negligence lawsuits (Sachdev, Chicago Tribune, 11/13).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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