Liability

Physicians' liability insurance premiums have continued to drop since the passage of Proposition 12 and our landmark 2003 health care liability reforms. All major physician liability carriers in Texas have cut their rates by more than 30 percent. Texas physicians have seen their liability rates cut, on average, 46 percent. Cumulative liability cost savings since January 2004: $1.9 billion.

The passage of House Bill 270 by the New Mexico Legislature allows Texas physicians to obtain a signed agreement from New Mexico patients stating that should they wish to file a lawsuit they will do so in Texas court. To assist physicians in taking advantage of the law's protections, TAPA has developed two forms, one for emergency treatment and one for voluntary treatment. 

Last month, TMA signed on to the Texas Alliance for Patient Access' (TAPA's) friend-of-the-court brief to support the application of the willful and wanton standard in a lawsuit involving emergency obstetrical care. TMA, TAPA, and other signatories contend emergency care provisions apply to medical care provided in an obstetrical unit without the pregnant patient first having been evaluated in a hospital's emergency department.

TMB finished its fiscal year last month having received a record number of new physician applications. TMB received 5,544 new applications, up 3 percent from the previous year's record 5,377 applicants.

A doctor sued for negligence for a procedure he performed in Texas will have to defend himself under the law of … New Mexico? Right now, that's the situation in which Eldo Frezza, MD, finds himself. The bariatric surgeon faces several similar suits filed not in Texas, where he performed surgery on the patients, but in New Mexico, where the plaintiffs live.