{"id":6877,"date":"2017-06-23T18:38:21","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6877"},"modified":"2017-06-23T18:38:21","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:38:21","slug":"proposal-in-congress-would-override-texas-medical-malpractice-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6877","title":{"rendered":"Proposal in Congress Would Override Texas Medical Malpractice Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Studies<\/a>

Studies show that preventable medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer. Photo: vm\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Medical malpractice laws in Texas and other states would be nullified under a measure in Congress that could be voted on this week.<\/p>\n

House Resolution 1215<\/a>, the Protecting Access to Care Act, would weaken accountability requirements for hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and drug companies accused in a patient\u2019s injury or death. Conservative writer and public policy consultant Dean Clancy explained the measure would cancel out any state-level malpractice laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt even overrides state constitutional provisions, that the people of the states have added to their constitutions in order to protect patients and people who are injured by medical negligence,\u201d Clancy said. \u201cAnd so, there\u2019s a very high-handed, top-down, Washington-knows-best quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill would apply to claims such as medical negligence, defective medical devices, dangerous pharmaceuticals, and nursing home neglect and abuse, and sets a federal cap on damages and a statute of limitations. Clancy said Texas Republicans Ted Poe and Louis Gohmert have led House opposition to the bill, while Rep. Lamar Smith is a co-sponsor.<\/p>\n

The measure would apply to people in federal health care programs, which opponents argue would disproportionately affect people with federal marketplace insurance plans \u2013 those covered by Medicare and Medicaid \u2013 as well as veterans and service members.<\/p>\n

Supporters say it would reduce frivolous medical lawsuits and excessive jury awards, and help bring down provider costs. But Clancy contends it wouldn\u2019t have much impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch suggests that the kinds of reforms they\u2019re pushing, like damage caps, don\u2019t really save a lot of money,\u201d he said. \u201cMedical malpractice probably accounts for less than 2.5 percent of all health care costs. So there\u2019s actually not much money to be saved in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a Johns Hopkins University study, preventable medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer. Opponents of HR 1215 include the Institute for Policy Innovation, the Taxpayer Protection Alliance and the American Bar Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson HOUSTON \u2013\u00a0Medical malpractice laws in Texas and other states would be nullified under a measure in Congress that could be voted on this week. House Resolution 1215, the Protecting Access to Care Act, would weaken accountability requirements for hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and drug companies accused in a patient\u2019s injury or death. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6882,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6877\/revisions\/6882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}