How the Boards’ sizable caseload is being handled, what standards for review are used to determine whether to investigate and prosecute certain cases, and to what extent prosecution of cases before the Board will impact a pending civil liability action are all issues of concern to Pa. physicians.

Because they have both significant and minor risks to insure against, because they generally have high income tax liabilities, and because they are interested in building asset-protected wealth over the long-term, doctors of all types may find CICs to be an important planning tool.

A junior physician could leave with no notice without a restrictive covenant, a senior physician could retire or die with no entitlement to a buy-out, or existing documents may be old and outdated in light of the current legal and economic environment.

The lawsuits further complicate hospitals’ struggle to balance legal, ethical and pragmatic obligations to provide charity care.

There would clearly be some negative impacts: jobs would be lost, local businesses would close and physicians would be dislocated. Some analysts counter that MCP had been a weak institution – financially, academically and clinically – for many years, that Philadelphia has an abundance and/or maldistribution of medical services, and that MCP’s closure would cause little long-term disruption to most physicians, patients or remaining hospitals.

Studies reveal a distinct correlation between communication issues and malpractice claims.

Three health insurance companies have come forth with lawsuit settlement proposals promising more favorable reimbursement practices and significant changes in their reimbursement policies and procedures, which physicians had tried to get them to implement, without success, through contract negotiations and through legislative channels.

The amended venue rules will likely provide a sturdy challenge for plaintiffs using venue to seek out sympathetic juries and, by requiring plaintiffs to find an expert to certify that a case has merit, the rules provide yet another layer of protection for defendants who in the past relied on preliminary objections and summary judgment to dispose of baseless lawsuits.

Pa. Senate Majority Whip Jeffrey E. Piccola makes the case for caps.

It is time to truly put the ball of responsibility firmly in a patient's court and create documentation vehicles to do so, in a positive, not an adversarial, fashion.