The Illinois Hospital Community Opposes Amendment Number 1 to Senate Bill 1979 - A Flawed Medical Liability Bill

My name is Harry Maier. I am CEO of Memorial Hospital in Belleville Illinois and have been for 28 years. I am here today to testify in opposition to Amendment Number 1 to Senate Bill 1979 on behalf of Memorial as the fourth-largest employer in Madison and St. Clair Counties as well as Memorial's 2,400 employees and their families, its over 300 physicians, and its 1,000 Auxillians. In addition, I am also President of IHA Region 4 representing hospitals in Madison and St. Clair counties and the over 27,000 healthcare workers in these two counties who provide critical healthcare services to many thousands of patients throughout Southwest Illinois.

The "bottom line" or litmus test that you should apply to this legislation is very simple--does it meaningfully resolve, and not merely superficially or cosmetically address for political purposes, the underlying causes of the devastating malpractice crisis which is steadily dismantling the healthcare system in Southwestern Illinois and other key areas in Illinois? Will it encourage malpractice insurance carriers to return to the Illinois market and offer physicians affordable malpractice insurance coverage? If passed in its present form without proven fundamental reforms enacted by at least 25 other states, will it enable Illinois State Medical Insurance Exchange to commit to substantially reducing its current premium rates to levels, which are economically sustainable by physicians?

In its present form, Amendment Number 1 does little to address and resolve the current malpractice crisis. First and foremost, it fails to include reasonable caps on non-economic damages which, as already proven in at least 25 other states, will help reduce unnecessary and unjustified settlements in our less-than-impartial local courts. And, as importantly, such caps will bring the predictability absolutely essential to convince liability insurance carriers to return to Illinois and to re-introduce competition among carriers to help lower insurance premiums. It is absolutely astonishing to me--and I would hope somewhat embarrassing to the State of Illinois and its Legislature--that my institution has been forced to divert substantial patient care financial resources to establishing a captive insurance company to retain 32 key physicians in our community to avoid them joining the 180 plus physicians who have left our two counties during the last 2 1/2 years. However, one positive of my new unwanted role as the CEO of an insurance company in what has been frequently described as the "number two judicial hellhole in the United States" has been the education I have received in how insurance companies make decisions. Without reasonable caps on non-economic damages, no insurance companies will return to Illinois and risk the huge and disproportionate "lottery type" awards of non-economic damages in medical liability cases. Until the Governor and Illinois Legislature gets serious about making the unpredictable and inefficient liability system in Illinois predictable, no insurance company will return to Illinois-- nor will the one remaining insurer in Southwest Illinois be in a position to reduce today's high malpractice rates for physicians.

Amendment Number 1 also contains flawed, if not worthless, language on apparent agency for healthcare institutions. Since it allows patients to disavow any document they sign at a hospital notifying them the doctors are not employees of the hospital, it provides absolutely no protection for hospitals from liabilities for mistakes they did not directly clause. It also fails to deal with the critical issue of the joint and several liability for healthcare institutions. The watered-down provisions of the affidavit of merit permitting the professional's report and curriculum vitae to remain under seal renders the provision worthless. They watered-down provisions for the use of annuities are equally ineffective. Finally, most disturbing to many physicians in our two counties are the vague and ineffective provisions of personal asset protection for physicians. Quite frankly, physicians will leave Illinois before they will trust frequently less-than-impartial local courts to determine whether an injury was caused by a physician's willful or wanton misconduct.

While there are some useful provisions in Amendment 1, they do not represent the fundamental reforms necessary to resolve the medical malpractice crisis. They are analogous to using diluted drugs to treat critically-ill patients. It is time for the Illinois Senate to get serious about enacting these fundamental reforms-- and to do so before the healthcare system in the Madison and St. Clair counties--the consensus Ground Zero in Illinois for the medical malpractice crisis--melts down and the exodus of physicians accelerates the healthcare system into nuclear winter. That is in no way an overstatement or exaggeration. As hospitals and physicians in these two counties have previously testified to the Legislature, the 180 physicians who have already left our two counties will pale in significance to the physicians. who will leave without meaningful malpractice reform. When recently-passed comprehensive malpractice reforms In Missouri become effective, Missouri's malpractice insurance rates--already lower than those in Illinois--will further drop. Our doctors will be then able to easily commute to abundant practice opportunities in the St. Louis area without having to uproot their families, have their children change schools, sell their homes, or relocate. And, because the only real remaining malpractice carrier in our area will continue to ration offering coverage for new physicians, my institution and others in our two counties will continue to be unable to recruit replacement physicians.

Last November, voters in Southwestern Illinois sent a clear and unmistakable message to our elected officials via the Illinois Supreme Court election--they demand and will accept nothing less than meaningful and effective medical malpractice reforms to stop the hemorrhaging of physicians from our area and the elimination of their access to critical healthcare services for their families and themselves. Rest assured that several hundred thousand residents--and voters--in Southwestern Illinois are carefully watching the Illinois Senate to determine whether this legislative body will do what is right and enact essential reforms or wait until the healthcare system in Southwestern Illinois has been so irreparably damaged that they and their families will be relegated to Third World quality health care.

I appreciate the opportunity to testify and to urge you to vote against Amendment number 1 To Senate Bill 1979.