Patients in Texas can thank the malpractice caps:
An influx of doctors into Texas has caused long waits for medical licenses, inconveniences for patients wanting to see certain specialists and anxiety for physicians awaiting new colleagues to help with high caseloads.People in the medical field say the state’s limits on malpractice lawsuits have generated a surge of doctors, including specialists, who want to practice in Texas, which is helping bring more doctors to areas of the state that don’t have enough . . .
. . . On average, malpractice insurance premiums in Texas have gone down 21.3 percent since the tort law took effect in September 2003, said Jon Opelt, executive director of Texas Alliance for Patient Access. The alliance, which supported changing the medical liability law, describes itself as a coalition of doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, health care providers and medical liability insurers.
The law is “a big factor why Texas has become a popular state to practice in,” said Dr. Punit Chadha, an oncologist who moved to Austin from Chicago last summer. “When medical recruitment firms send out information, . . . they will tout the friendliness” of the malpractice environment.
Chadha, who grew up in Houston, said he wanted to come back to Texas but would not have returned if not for the 2003 law. His malpractice insurance premium is now about one-fourth of what it would have been in Chicago, which has some of the highest rates in the nation, he said.
Related posts:
- Texas malpractice reforms are working too well
- Texas malpractice: "A case were politicians actually delivered"
- How many doctors take Medicare in Texas?
- Tort reform working in Texas
- The Texas stampede of physicians
- Tort reform: "It does not get any clearer"
- Malpractice caps = more doctors
{ 9 comments }
When evaluating claims like this, absolute numbers are somewhat useless. In the first of this series almost two years ago, the article claimed an increase in physician licenses due to the malpractice cap when the truth of the matter is that the two years prior to the passage of the legislation, more physicians were licensed than the two years post-passage. That was true for both absolute and relative numbers. In other words, in the first two years of the cap, it caused a decrease in physician license applications in Texas according to the logic of this article.
The proprietor of this site never corrected that dishonest post. In fact, the proprietor of this site has never, to my knowledge, corrected a dishonest post even when documented facts were supplied to him.
Stop wasting your time here, dispute it on your website and we will all flock to read it.
I have friends who have been waiting for upwards of a year on TX medical license approval. You may rest assured the supply of physicians in Texas does not respond immediately to changes in the practice environment.
I love how a few of our posters feel that number are “useless” when their version of reality is disproved.
Keep at it, chief! I’m right there with you, the earth is flat. Yeah!!!!
Yes, reigning in the cost of medical malpractice is a measurable factor. But the intangible factor that really causes the migration to make sense is that… it’s TEXAS!!!!
Ahh yes Texas. The state missing one of it’s village idiots (he’s in the white house). Liked Austin and San Antonio. The rest of the state stinks.
The growth in physicians has been slower than the growth of population in Texas. So is it surprising that with more people there is more work for physicians? Regardless of whether there are damage caps?
Growth in physicians 1999-2003 = 15.3%
Growth in physicians 2003-2007 = 15.7%
That’s hardly a difference that is much to crow about especially when you consider that Texas was in the lowest quartile for per capita physicians prior to the law passing and still is. Also, the most underserved counties are still underserved since the physicians “flocking” to Texas are not opening rural practices. Finally, as a percentage basis, Texas captured more of the growth in physician poulation nationwide in the 1999-2003 period than in the 2003-2007 period. It’s great that those who advocate malpractice caps have all these anecdotes and a friendly media, but that does not replace actual data.
Keep them waiting. We don’t want all the OJ Simpsons of the medical profession in our state. There are enough here now. WAIT WAIT WAIT maybe that will give the Medical Board time to do the job they are PAID to do.
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