by Holly Hayes President Obama’s Plan on Health Care (discussed here and outlined here) includes a provision on medical malpractice reform that instructs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award medical malpractice demonstration grants to states funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Following are some responses from industry leaders: American Hospital Association (AHA) President and CEO, Rich Umbdenstock, said, “We appreciate the President’s willingness to explore better alternatives to today’s medical liability system, and urge that even stronger actions be taken in this area to reign in excessive lawsuits that are currently driving physicians to practice defensive medicine and raise the cost of care for everyone.” (find the statement here) American Medical Association (AMA) President, J. James Rohack, MD, comments, “President Obama recognized what physicians have long known – that medical liability reform is needed to bring down the cost of health care, and he is directing the Department of Health and Human Services to take action now. Recognizing the critical need for medical liability reform is an important step toward reducing unnecessary costs. Everyday physicians across the country are forced to consider the broken medical liability system when making decisions, resulting in defensive medicine that adds to unnecessary health costs. We cannot ignore this problem if health-system reform is going to address the growing cost of care.” (find the statement here) American Nursing Association (ANA) President Rebecca Patton praised President Obama at his first public appearance on health care reform since addressing Congress for advocating for people who lack access to basic health care services in the nation’s “broken system” and for fighting for consumer protections in the health insurance market. (find the statement here) Technorati Tags: Tort Reform, Healthcare President Obama, speech September 9, arbitration, ADR, law, mediation Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at: holly@karlbayer.com.

President Obama’s speech (text is here and videos: Parts I, II, III, IV, and V) to a joint session of the U.S.Congress delivered on September 9, briefly mentioned a proposal to move the medical malpractice lawsuits out of the court system and before mediators, medical expert panels, and arbitrators. Although we have not been able to find out the details of the plan –it appears that it will be announced within a month– here is what some commentators are saying about it: States Could Offer Template for Revising Malpractice Law. Some states (Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky, and others) have adopted a system that allows doctors to disclose medical errors and then enter into mediation to resolve the dispute. Other states (Florida, Georgia, and Illinois) require plaintiffs to have their case reviewed by physicians before the case is filed in court. (read more here) Obama Bucks the Trial Lawyers: Is Med-Mal Reform Imminent? A similar proposal on medical malpractice plan for tort reform was first outlined by President George W. Bush. According to this article, President Obama’s reform would be in the form of an executive order, not via legislation. (read more here) Tort Reform: Obama’s Silver Bullet. The reform on top of the list, “early disclosure” by doctors was proposed by then-Senator Obama and co-sponsored by Hillary Clinton. The second reform would require any Complainant to obtain an affidavit stating the the claim has merits. According to this report, both measures have been accepted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee as amendments to the health-reform legislation. (read more here) Read coverage at the BBC, WSJ, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post. Stay tuned to Disputing for updates on this controversial topic! Technorati Tags: Tort Reform, Healthcare President Obama, speech September 9, arbitration, ADR, law, mediation

Diane Levin, who maintains the impressive World Directory of ADR Blogs and is the managing editor for the Mediation Channel, has named our blog Disputing as one of her 24 Alternative Dispute Resolutions Blogs to Follow. We invite you to read the post and subscribe to her recommended blogs here. Like Disputing, the Mediation Channel is a Mediate.com Featured Blog. Thank you Diane! Karl Bayer, Alyson Chaky, Holly Hayes, and Victoria VanBuren

As discussed in our previous posts (here, here, and here) a U.S. Congressional Hearing on consumer debt arbitration was held on July 22, 2009 in Washington D.C. We thought that you might be interesting in watching these videos. Part 1 Part 2 (please fast forward 4:40 minutes) Technorati Tags: arbitration, ADR, law, consumer arbitration