The OSMA, which represents over 5,000 Oklahoma physicians, needs your help to fight inaccurate and misleading claims about lawsuit reform in our state.  A recent op-ed article in the Daily Oklahoman by a trial lawyer-friendly organization claims that medical malpractice lawsuit concerns are “grossly exaggerated”.  The article applauded Governor Henry’s veto of comprehensive and meaningful lawsuit reform contained in SB 507 from last legislative session.  Below you will see a response from William H. Oehlert, MD, President, OSMA, to this misleading article.  We urge you to share this article with your local newspaper and legislators as we continue the fight for meaningful lawsuit reform.

Lawsuit Reform—Don’t Distort and Mislead for the Sake of Our Patients and our State!

William H. Oehlert, MD, President, Oklahoma State Medical Association

Oklahoma’s physicians and their patients thank Hugh Robert, the Executive Director of a new organization calling itself “Oklahoma Center for Consumer and Patient Safety,” for his professed concern for patient safety and access to care. Through his misleading and inaccurate statements in a September 14 Daily Oklahoman op-ed piece, Mr. Robert has inadvertently helped raise awareness of the need for medical lawsuit reform. 

Oklahoma’s medical doctors—the ones who remain in Oklahoma—are very concerned about patient safety. That is why we hope the public will understand the need for a strong and financially healthy physician liability insurance company to combat frivolous lawsuits. This will encourage physicians to stay in our great state.

We are impressed by Oklahoma legislative leaders such as Senators Glenn Coffee, James Williamson and Susan Paddack and House Speaker Lance Cargill, Representatives Dan Sullivan and Doug Cox, MD who are committed to making Oklahoma a business friendly state. They know that to compete with our neighboring states, Oklahoma must offer affordable and accessible quality health care—that’s the true reason that the Legislature passed Senate Bill 507 last session. This legislation was a comprehensive and meaningful effort to reform a broken liability system that drives physicians out of state, or forces them to drop much needed high risk care. Unfortunately Governor Henry vetoed this bill even though he promised to sign a “Texas-plus” reform bill.

Our lack of reform is a stark contrast to Texas. Since Texas adopted comprehensive reforms, physician liability insurance rates have dropped over 30% since 2003 and Texas patients now have access to OB/GYN, neurosurgeons and other high risk care absent for many years in parts of the state. Over 4,000 physicians are seeking Texas licensure, a 38 percent increase over 2006.

Why is this important? The answer is simple and basic: we compete with Texas and other neighboring states to attract good companies and good jobs. Access to quality health care, along with quality education and a strong and competitive package of economic incentives are critical pieces of that competition. According to our State Chamber of Commerce President Dick Rush, “Companies looking to locate in our region view access to quality health care as one of the most important issues they consider when deciding where to locate.”  We need to decide what’s important to our state’s future—creating a healthy business climate that’s attractive to companies bringing good jobs or becoming a haven for personal injury lawsuits that enrich a few trial lawyers but drive doctors, businesses and jobs away.

At a time when the Commonwealth Fund, a leading source of health care information, ranked Oklahoma dead last among the states in overall health, we can’t afford to give Mr. Robert the last word with misleading and less than truthful statements about patient safety and lawsuit reform.  Oklahomans need access to quality care and physicians need meaningful lawsuit reform to begin turning this ranking around.

Mr. Robert, any time you want the real truth about lawsuit reform, please call us at OSMA or even better--talk to your own doctor!