ATLANTA (March 4, 2013) –Senate Bill 141, also known as the “Patient Injury Act,” was assigned to a summer subcommittee in the Senate Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee today. SB 141, sponsored by Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta), would replace the state’s current medical malpractice system with a no-blame, administrative model and would reduce healthcare costs.
“Although Senate Bill 141 was tabled this morning, I look forward to working with colleagues and professionals over the summer to refine this bill for a vote early next year,” said Sen. Beach. “After hours of testimony from both sides, it is evident that something must be done to reform our current malpractice system. SB 141 is a step in the right direction of creating an alternative system that instills transparency in our medical system, saves taxpayers’ dollars and rejuvenates patient’s trust in the litigation process.”
“I am proud of Sen. Beach for working so hard on his first bill,” said HHS Chairwoman Renee Unterman (R-Buford). “He worked diligently to seek citizen input and investigate both sides of the argument. SB 141 will require more work over the summer and fall and I look forward to continuing work on Sen. Beach’s legislation.”
Under SB 141, the current adversarial tort system would be eliminated and when a patient is harmed by a physician, he or she would file a claim for review by an independent panel of medical experts. If the panel deems “avoidable harm” occurred, the claim would be forwarded to a Compensation Board to award compensation. As compared to previous reform efforts which have been oriented solely towards the reduction of medical malpractice insurance rates, this proposed administrative system—the “Patient Compensation System”—is multi-dimensional in its focus on the reduction of the cost of defensive medicine and an increase in true patient access to justice.
Various physicians ranging in the fields of neurology to family medicine testified in support of the bill which would create a no-fault system and assist in eliminating the practice of defensive medicine. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation advocated for the bill stating the importance of moving from litigation based malpractice system to an administrative based system. Various other organizations and citizens voiced support of the bill including, Emory Professor Joanna Shepherd Bailey, Ph. D., Patients for Fair Compensation, United States Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Docs 4 Patient Care and Ross Mason, founder of The Healthcare Institute for Neuro-Recovery and Innovation.
Chairwoman Unterman will assign the summer subcommittee at a later time.
RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
March 4, 2013
For Information Contact:
Jennifer Yarber, Interim Director
Emily Williams, Communications Associate
Emily.Williams@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028