PUBLIC INTEREST WATCH URGES ACTION AGAINST
"CRIMINALIZATION OF HEALTH CARE"
Says West Virginia hospital fiasco is example of lawsuit abuse, not health care crisis
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Public Interest Watch (PIW) urged state and federal legislative reform to address rampant lawsuit abuse and its impact on consumers and America's health care system.
"By any objective measure, predatory trial lawyers and rampant lawsuits are having a devastating impact not only on how doctors, nurses and hospitals treat patients, but ultimately on patent care" said Lewis Fein, Executive Director of Public Interest Watch.
"While we must never restrict the opportunity for injured parties to be heard in court, this is no excuse for a system that is literally putting health care out of reach for many consumers."
Fein specifically referenced the recent decision by HCA, Inc. to shut Putnam General Hospital in West Virginia by the end of August, due to literally hundreds of lawsuits that targeted an osteopath alleged to have committed malpractice. HCA has decided to close the facility, rather than continually joust with local lawyers demanding billions of dollars in damages.
PIW staff first learned about this issue from a recent editorial about Putnam General Hospital appearing in the West Virginia Record: "The problem is that lawyers want much more. Because they personally keep a third or more of the take, they demand what's come to be known as 'jackpot justice.' That's tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, when, say, a cool $1 million would more than satisfy the injured party."
PIW pointed out that the real victim here is not any hospital system, insurance company or other corporate interest. The most injured party is America's health care consumers who receive less access and fewer choices as a result of lawsuits that drive providers out of business.
"It took years to establish Putnam General Hospital, it services a lightly populated area and now it may disappear. Where are that region's people going to go? This is a question trial lawyers never seem to notice in their discovery proceedings," said Fein.
PIW also directed attention to the fact that the litigation team going after Putnam General Hospital is beginning to fracture.
A Charleston, West Virginia medical malpractice lawyer who helped represent 25 people has now sued those former clients for time he spent working on their cases. According to the West Virginia Record, William S. Druckman partnered with lawyer Richard Lindsay and others to handle the swarm of medical malpractice claims former patients and yet is now suing 25 separate men and women in circuit court. Druckman, who has also sued Lindsay and others in Kanawha Circuit Court for allegedly withholding fees, wants to recover more than $75,000 he spent in litigation costs and expenses, according to his lawsuit. "This is nuts," Lindsay has said.
"We formed Public Interest Watch for these reasons: To safeguard the public interest and enhance the public's right to know. We fear that the Putnam General Hospital situation is only the beginning, and we will be seeing more tragedies like this: Doctors, nurses and hospitals no longer able to provide needed and necessary care for patients because lawsuits went too far and broke their backs, rather than reform what might be wrong," said Fein.
PIW also called upon state legislators and the Congress to devote new attention to enacting meaningful tort reform - the kind of changes that will ensure that the primary beneficiaries of successful litigation are deserving parties, not creative trial lawyers.
"This is not about anything except the consequences of lawsuit abuse," said Fein. "The real story of Putnam General Hospital is that lawyers representing people got greedy and drove a hospital out of business. They should be ashamed of themselves. And it's time for state and federal lawmakers to get involved."
PIW is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, which means contributions to PIW are not tax-deductible.
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