Mini Med Mal Roundup

There are a lot of stories on the med mal front.  First, two from the MICRA fight:

An analysis from the The Fresno Bee finds that the anti-cap increase ads are misleading.  Here’s a taste:

But the ad goes too far by unequivocally claiming that raising the cap will increase malpractice insurance costs and that the result would certainly be higher costs for consumers. Five health economists contacted by The Bee had mixed opinions on those questions.

An editorial in the The Sacramento Bee urges rejection of the initiative, stating that the cynicism of attaching the drug-testing measure is reason enough to vote against it.

In other news, Law Firm Newswire is reporting that misdiagnosis is the most common form of med mal, surpassing surgical errors and medication mixups.  This is described as surprising, but it is consistent with my memory of med mal cases in the period I practiced law.

Finally, in August, HHS ruled that all malpractice payments under state liability laws must be reported to the National Practitioner Data Base.  The ruling was meant to address issues raised by recent “early offer”-type programs enacted in Massachusetts and Oregon.