No-Fault Medical Review Board Faults Families Effected By Serious Medical Error
There is a lot of discussion regarding the implementation of a no-fault medical review board to handling medical malpractice claims. A parallel to workers compensation, the board would hear individual cases and make awards depending on the severity of the injury. However the faults we see with workers compensation would be magnified in the medical malpractice context. Consider the following except from a Virginia newspaper regarding that states medical review board:
"Families that depend on a state program to help their severely injured children asked the governor yesterday to replace key officials and rid the board of "irreconcilable conflicts of interest.
"On a day that several family representatives gained access to ongoing discussions that could chart the future of the state's birth-related injury compensation program, 20 families yesterday wrote Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that they have witnessed "underhanded tactics, outright dishonesty, and cruel insensitivity to our children from the program and its associates."
The tone of the letter is in sharp contrast to the impressions of some families reached by The Times-Dispatch last week who voiced support for program operations and are pleased with medical benefits that are projected to average about $2 million per child.
Kaine's office said the governor was reviewing the letter yesterday and had no immediate comment.
The letter to Kaine reflects growing tensions over the future of a program that at its outset 18 years ago was portrayed as an imaginative no-fault alternative to costly malpractice litigation; one objective was to preserve access to obstetrical health care, especially in rural areas."
Read the full article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch here.