January 27, 2003
Tort reform called essential to save non-profit care
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Institutions that care for elderly and incapacitated Texans are headed to the critical care list themselves unless the Texas Legislature writes a new prescription to reduce frivolous lawsuits, according to the presidents of leading non-profit care providers.
___Many Texans are losing access to nursing home care and emergency room services, the presidents contend. And the crisis will increase unless care-giving institutions gain protection from frivolous lawsuits and relief from escalating insurance costs, they add.
___Chief executive officers of the two largest Baptist human care institutions in Texas shared that warning with the Baptist General Convention of Texas Human Welfare Coordinating Board at its Jan. 17 meeting in Dallas.
___Ken Hall of Buckner Benevolences and Joel Allison of Baylor Health Care System reported to the coordinating board on behalf of all BGCT-affiliated elder-care and health-care institutions.
___Liability insurance costs led Buckner to close its Ryburn Home in Dallas last year, Hall reported, explaining that Buckner's insurance bills rose from roughly $600,000 to $6 million in five years.
___Buckner remains committed to providing elder care in Texas, but others have been forced out of the market, Hall said. Lutheran Social Services, for example, has sold all its Texas nursing homes.
___There has been virtually no new not-for-profit development in Texas in the last two years, Hall said.
___And for-profit nursing homes are faring little better than non-profits. A significant percentage of the for-profit nursing homes in Texas are in bankruptcy, Hall said.
___In the last year, the number of nursing home beds in Texas has dropped 10 percent, he said, and many areas of the state are underserved.
___Frivolous lawsuits and exorbitant damages awarded to plaintiffs have forced dramatic leaps in insurance costs. And that in turn has taken a toll on both elder-care facilities and hospitals, the institutional presidents said.
___At the same time, a growing number of Texans lack access to trauma care--not because they are uninsured or indigent, but because hospitals cannot afford to offer it, Allison said.
___Likewise, hospitals increasingly are reluctant to offer neo-natal intensive care and other expensive, high-risk medical services because they fear devastating lawsuits and are saddled with escalating liability and malpractice insurance costs, Allison said.
___"Unless we have tort reform, we won't have high-risk obstestrics care in this state," he warned.
___The institutional presidents brought their appeal to the Human Welfare Coordinating Board one day after President George W. Bush issued a call for medical liability reform. Speaking in Scranton, Pa., Bush called for a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages in lawsuits and an unspecified "reasonable" limit on punitive damages.
___"The president's proposal is based on the California model, which has a 25-year proven history of providing reasonable recompense to those truly injured, without bankrupting the health-care providers," said John Thomas, general counsel for Baylor Health Care System and president of the national Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Healthcare.
___Messengers to the 2002 BGCT annual session in Waco passed a resolution citing the burdens borne by care-giving institutions due to "unnecessary and frivolous litigation and escalating insurance costs."
___The resolution called on elected governmental leaders to "seek and secure relief from these burdens by passing into law legal reforms protecting these and other non-profit institutions."
___In particular, the resolution called for laws to protect charitable endowment funds from lawsuits and provide liability insurance relief for non-profit providers of long-term care.
___So far, 17 bills have been introduced in the Texas Legislature addressing liability limits on insurance for hospitals, nursing homes and related facilities, according to Suzii Paynter, citizenship and public policy director for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission. For example, HB429 by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, would exempt non-profit nursing homes from state requirements for liability insurance.
___Paynter noted that some consumer groups are seeking to link liability limits to rollbacks of insurance premiums.
___"The thinking is that it would be patently unfair to consumers to limit liability and yet ask consumers to continue to pay the greatly inflated premiums--60 percent increase--brought on by the unlimited liability years," she explained.
___Another suggested solution would be to limit the amount a lawyer can receive from a settlement, she added.
___"Under this arrangement, first award would be payment of the victim, second payment to the attorney up to the cap, and then any awarded amount above the lawyer cap would go to state coffers," she said.
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