OPPOSE HB 2205 Malpractice settlements; disclosure of certain [info] via Physician Information Project.

LIS > Bill Tracking > HB2205 > 2005 session: HB 2205 Malpractice settlements; Disclosure of certain malpractice settlements via the Physician Information Project.
Patron: Bradley Marrs
- Modifies the reporting and disclosure requirements concerning malpractice settlements relating to physicians of medicine, osteopathy, and podiatry. The bill prohibits the disclosure online via the Physician Information Project of malpractice settlements that are required to be reported by insurance companies, and limits reports to the Board of Medicine from individual physicians to malpractice judgments. The settlements will still be reported to the Board of Medicine by the malpractice carriers.

Please call the General Assembly's Constituent Viewpoint lines to OPPOSE THIS BILL. The operators will immediately forward your opinions to both your delegate and your senator.

CALL: 1-800-889-0229 (outside Richmond) or 698-1990 (Richmond area) 9am-5pm M-F

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Bad outcome to impart lessons
Family that alleged negligence in lawsuit sees need for reform
BY BILL MCKELWAY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Thursday, January 20, 2005

"Among the more than two dozen bills affecting medical-malpractice laws and physician discipline in this year's legislative session is one filed by Del. Bradley P. Marrs, R-Chesterfield. It would end the practice of filing notice of medical-malpractice settlements on the Board of Medicine's public Web site.

Marrs, a lawyer, said the bill is "a product of my own thinking" and has not been entered because of complaints from a constituent or the medical profession. Nor did the Medical Society of Virginia request the bill, said a spokesman.

Marrs said he believes doctors' fears about public notices of settlements and the misimpression people can get about a doctor from seeing the vague notices are forcing claims of malpractice to go to trial.

Medical board records show that removing public notice of a settlement from the Web site would keep from public scrutiny almost 90 percent of medical-malpractice cases that are resolved with a paid claim in Virginia."