SUBJECT: Support for H.R. 1215, the Protecting Access to Care Act
Dear Speaker Ryan,
On behalf of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological
Surgeons (CNS), we are writing to support passage of H.R. 1215, the Protecting Access to Care Act,
when the House of Representatives votes on the measure next week. This bill includes needed reforms
that will vastly improve the medical-legal system, as well as save the federal government billions of
dollars.
Some goals of a well-functioning medical-legal system including:
- Compensating in a timely fashion patients that have been harmed by medical negligence;
- Maximizing the amount of award that goes directly to the patient;
- Minimizing the number of frivolous lawsuits;
- Lowering the costs of professional liability insurance; and
- Reducing the practice of defensive medicine.
Unfortunately, as you are aware, for patients and physicians in most states, the current medical-legal
system fails to achieve these goals. As a high-risk specialty, neurosurgery knows only too well how the
current system falls short. Consider the following:
- Forty-four percent of neurosurgeons have reported that they limit the type of patients they treat, with 71 percent no longer performing aneurysm surgery, 23 percent no longer treating brain tumors and 75 percent no longer operating on children.
- On average, neurosurgeons are sued every two years, although most of these cases are dropped or resolved in favor of the neurosurgeon.
- Two-thirds of neurosurgeons report ordering imaging or other tests solely to minimize the risk of lawsuits; thus driving up the costs of defensive medicine.
- Neurosurgeons pay the highest professional liability insurance premiums of all physician specialties, typically in excess of $100,000 per year.
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