Healthcare Transparency
12/21/09 17:48 Filed in: Medical
Malpractice | Tort Reform
At the federal level, debate rages over healthcare
reform. At the local level, still waters run deep.
The legislature created an ‘interim’ committee at
the close of last session to study health care
transparency and improvements. Despite meeting in
secret and also hiding its list of improvements
from legislative oversight committees, word is
leaking out that the interim folks are bent on
making it more difficult to bring suit if you are
injured by medical malpractice. Instead of
transparency and creating a healthcare system that
actually works for patient’s rights, the interim
committee is bent on preserving insurance profit.
So, in the upcoming local legislative session, expect to hear a lot about ‘tort reform,’ very little about transparency and patient’s rights.
In the meantime, you can take some steps: tell your legislator you want a Patient’s Bill of Rights; tell your legislator you want a public system where you can go to find out background information on your doctors, healthcare providers, nurses and hospitals... after all, you can already look up your local restaurant to find out how many times the health department has cited them for violations, shouldn’t you have access to the same information for those who hold your lives in your hands? Which is more important, finding out if Taco Bell left chicken out on the counter, or knowing that surgeon who is about to cut you has been sued for malpractice more than once?
So, in the upcoming local legislative session, expect to hear a lot about ‘tort reform,’ very little about transparency and patient’s rights.
In the meantime, you can take some steps: tell your legislator you want a Patient’s Bill of Rights; tell your legislator you want a public system where you can go to find out background information on your doctors, healthcare providers, nurses and hospitals... after all, you can already look up your local restaurant to find out how many times the health department has cited them for violations, shouldn’t you have access to the same information for those who hold your lives in your hands? Which is more important, finding out if Taco Bell left chicken out on the counter, or knowing that surgeon who is about to cut you has been sued for malpractice more than once?