FORT WORTH, Texas-Gov. Rick Perry held a ceremonial bill signing June 11 at Harris Methodist Hospital here, as part of a series of visits to six cities to promote the medical malpractice tort reform legislation he made a priority for the just-concluded legislative session.

Before several hundred doctors, nurses and tort reform advocates, Perry said the changes will improve patient access to care while protecting health care providers against lawsuits that are driving up malpractice insurance premiums.

"We are removing the incentive personal injury trial lawyers currently have to file frivolous lawsuits and run doctors out of business," Perry said.

The formal signature of the law, which will place caps on both actual and punitive damages from medical malpractice claims, was scheduled for June 13 in Austin.

The law will bring about changes to how civil liability lawsuits are filed in Texas.

It also creates new liability protections for manufacturers and retailers while enacting new rules for class-action lawsuits and limits on which parties pay damages.

Medical groups that supported the reform said skyrocketing insurance costs were forcing doctors to close their practices or move out of state. They said caps were needed to curb frivolous lawsuits.

The bill caps lawsuit awards for pain and suffering at $250,000 for physicians, $250,000 for hospitals and $250,000 for nursing homes and other institutions for a maximum of $750,000 per claimant.

Houston attorney Hartley Hampton, who was part of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association's legislative team during the session, said the organization fought hard to defeat the bill. Lawyers contend the caps could be a green light to bad doctors or crooked businesses to wreak havoc with relative impunity.

"We did fight this until the last dog died," Hampton said. "We lost, the people of Texas lost and the rule of law lost."

John Durland, MD, a Tarrant County physician and chairman of the ad hoc Committee on Liability Reform of the Tarrant County Medical Society, told the gathering at Harris Methodist that the reforms were necessary to protect physicians from skyrocketing liability insurance premiums, and to stem the flow of specialists from rural areas of Texas.

"This will help preserve access to medical care for Texas patients," Durand said.

Contact Glen Fest at glenf@nurseweek.com

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