Patient Injury Act Would be Bad for Patients and Doctors

Patient Injury Act Would be Bad for Patients and Doctors

A bill recently introduced, Senate Bill 141, is an attempt by a special interest group comprising of healthcare industry executives to severely restrict our constitutional right to trial by jury while, at the same time, creating a huge new bureaucracy to manage medical malpractice claims. This bill is so bad that it has drawn the opposition of patients, doctors, and many in the medical malpractice insurance industry. If this bill were to become law, patients would lose their right to seek compensation from a jury when they are harmed as a result of medical malpractice. If the bill were to become law, there may be many more claims filed by patients which, of course, is not something physicians want to see happen. At the end of the day, the bureaucrats who would make decisions regarding medical malpractice claims would include medical professionals who, it is fair to say, would be hard-pressed to find their colleagues committed malpractice. Even if it was determined that a physician had committed malpractice, the bill so severely limits the compensation that an injured party could receive, that it could be worse than filing the claim in the first place.

At the end of the day, the bill is about making sure that a limited number of businesses and executives that run those businesses be immune from responsibility when consumers in Georgia are harmed by the negligent actions of the medical providers employed by these companies. The “Patient Injury Act” is a bad bill and should be rejected.