Proposed Legislation Needlessly Raises Taxes and Endangers Public
Currently, Ohio has some of the best medical care in the country. Senate Bill 129 will undermine that accomplishment by giving immunity to all physicians who provide emergency medical services. This proposed Bill will require taxes to be raised, will reduce the quality of medical care in Ohio, and will invite bad doctors to practice in Ohio. Under the proposed law, if any physician is negligent in the emergency room setting and causes injury to a patient, the doctor and/or hospital (and their private insurance companies) will not have to pay for the harm caused. Instead, the patient (or the taxpayer) will be required to pay for the financial harm that the medical errors caused, including lost wages and further medical treatment and expenses. This proposed law provides no incentive for emergency rooms to be staffed with the best and most qualified health care professionals. For the first time in Ohio’s history, preventable medical errors will cost hospitals nothing, but patients everything.
Further, the proposed legislation will undermine Governor’ Kasich’s promise to fix Ohio’s financial crisis. On a national level, medical errors cost Medicare approximately $4.4 Billion annually (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General). Preventable medical errors that do not result in the patients’ death almost always require the injured patients to seek further care, and in many instances render the patients unable to work or earn a living. The cost of that medical care and lost income will regularly be passed on to the taxpayers through increased state Medicaid spending and other governmental safety-net programs, thus adding to Ohio’s budget crisis. Ohio law has always required that the responsible party must pay for the medical care and lost income caused by the malpractice, not transfer that obligation to the taxpayer. SB 129 will turn 208 years of common sense law upside down.
History has shown proposed SB 129 to be a bad idea. In Texas and Georgia, for example, where such laws have passed--allowing emergency doctors to practice with little to no accountability, the quality of emergency care plummeted. According to the American College of Emergency Physicians Report Card on Access to Emergency Care, both Texas and Georgia received failing grades for access to emergency care. Ohio‘s grade exceeds the grade of all five states that currently have emergency room immunity laws.
Studies have proven that over 98,000 preventable deaths occur each year in America’s hospitals. This number does not include people who were severely injured and left with a life time of disabilities, medical bills, and lost wages. Lack of accountability will attract doctors to Ohio who had difficulty buying insurance elsewhere because of a history of significant medical mistakes. Ohio does not want to attract bad doctors to the state.
Because proposed SB 129 will increase the tax burden to Ohio’s taxpayers, attract bad doctors to Ohio, and decrease the quality of care delivered in Ohio’s emergency rooms and urgent care centers, the Bill is a bad idea and should be defeated.
Proponents suggest the Bill is necessary because emergency doctors sometimes have to make quick decisions. But that is exactly how ER doctors are trained, and why they are paid well. Proponents also suggest that this bill is limited to circumstances where a disaster strikes Ohio. That is simply not true. Immunity under SB 129 is conferred to all doctors who see patients in the ER setting, even under routine circumstances.
Currently, under Ohio law, doctors and hospitals have plenty of protection from unnecessary lawsuits. A lawsuit cannot be filed against a doctor or hospital unless a competent physician reviews the records, comes to an opinion about the care, and executes an affidavit under oath stating that the care failed to meet acceptable medical standards. So, only physicians can trigger a medical malpractice lawsuit in Ohio. Further, there are caps on the amount of damages a hospital or doctor can pay, irrespective of how badly injured the patient was. And, the number of claims against doctors in Ohio is at a historic low.
