MALPRACTICE Research reveals cost of lawsuits

There could be a mass exodus of doctors and insurance carriers.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
BOARDMAN -- An estimated $53 million was spent between 2000 and 2003 in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties to defend against frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits, doctors say.
The $53 million estimate is the result of a search of Mahoning County court documents done in May by a Boardman law firm, Engler and Associates. The study was commissioned by the Tri-County Physicians for Patients' Rights.
One of the purposes of the study was to determine how many cases filed in the years 2000 through 2003 were dismissed because they were found to be without merit and how much they cost, according to Dr. Marc Saunders, president of the Mahoning County Medical Society.
Reaching the public
Tri-County Physicians is made up of members of the Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana County Medical Societies and other interested physicians and health-care providers.
Tri-County's primary goal is to make the public aware that its local access to medical care is in danger and persuade the public to join with doctors in demanding that state politicians reform the medical malpractice system in Ohio.
"To me, that 65 percent of physicians named in suits in 2000 are still involved in those suits is the most significant fact of the study," Dr. Saunders said.
"My contention is, if it's four and one-half years later and you haven't found negligence, there isn't any. It looks like the lawyers are trying to manufacture cases," he said.
Pointing fingers
One of the doctors' main complaints is the lawyers' practice of naming everybody on the patient's chart, the so-called "shotgun" approach.
Atty. Anthony Gemma said no one is in favor of frivolous lawsuits, but defended the practice of naming everybody who had anything to do with the patient.
"The last thing any lawyer wants to do is leave out the one person who is responsible," he said.
He said extending the 12-month statute of limitations for suing doctors and hospitals might help.
Insurance issues
But Gemma believes doctors seeking relief from soaring insurance premiums are looking down the wrong road.
"Every other aspect of medicine is regulated. It might be helpful to look at the insurance industry as well," he said.
Dr. Saunders said one of the most important things that the public can do to help itself and doctors is to elect members of the Ohio Supreme Court who favor medical malpractice tort reform.
Dr. Ramesh Soundarajan, a partner in The Kidney Group, is one of the many physicians who is leaving Ohio primarily because the group's liability insurance premiums rose 400 percent between 2002 and 2004.
He has accepted a position in Chicago, effective in September, after 13 years in the Mahoning Valley.
Dr. Soundarajan said the move from the Mahoning Valley is very difficult emotionally and financially.
"I'm leaving my practice and my friends and a home I just built two years ago. I expected to live here the rest of my life. My 12-year-old child is quite upset about the move," said Dr. Soundarajan, who attributes much of the problem to frivolous lawsuits.
Extended suits
Dr. Nancy Gantt, a general surgeon who specializes in cancer patient breast reconstruction, says her private practice was also the victim of malpractice insurance premiums.
In 2002, she worked 60 to 80 hours a week and brought home about $60,000 from her practice, she said. She went on a sabbatical, and when she wanted to return to work part time in 2004, the premium quoted to her was $65,000.
"I can't justify that," she said.
Dr. Gantt said she has been practicing here since 1989 and has been named in suits several times. But, she said, she has never been in court and has given only one deposition. She has two cases still active, one of which is 5 years old.
"It's incredible. You think about it every day," she said.
Once a doctor is named, the standard attorney fee that the insurance company pays an attorney to look into it is $10,000, she said.
"In these types of lawsuits, sometimes called 'shotgun' lawsuits," Dr. Saunders said, "there are doctors who should have never been named in the suit. The problem is that they are included because the necessary mechanisms or processes aren't in place in the legal system to filter them out before a suit is filed."
In Mahoning County alone, from 2000 through 2003, about $23 million was spent in legal fees for cases that were dismissed because they were without merit. The figures for Trumbull and Columbiana counties are estimated to be approximately $20 million and $10 million, respectively, using extrapolation based on the relative populations of each of the three counties, Dr. Saunders said.
alcorn@vindy.com