Medical Justice Services, Inc.
Medical Justice Services, Inc. has since 2002 protected physicians from being sued for medical malpractice for frivolous reasons. In addition, Medical Justice is developing a new model for healthcare, HealthCare 2.0, which addresses lower healthcare premiums, coverage of the uninsured, patient safety, remedies for all injured patients, and lower professional liability premiums. The model, a collection of carrots and sticks, is funded solely by elimination of defensive medicine.
Situation
In the United States, physicians are sued at an alarming rate. At any given moment, there are 60,000 open medical malpractice lawsuits, many with multiple defendants. The tort system does little to promote patient safety. And injured patients who deserve timely remedies receive none.Physicians are healers and not fighters. When doctors butt heads with an adversarial legal system, they change. They order test and refer to specialists, also at an alarming rate, but not for the patient's benefit. They do so to avoid being sued again. This behavior provides no value, and, though understandable, costs the US healthcare system dearly.
Solution
Medical Justice, as a member-based organization, levels the playing field for physicians by holding proponents of frivolous lawsuits accountable. Medical Justice pays up to $100,000 to file countersuits against any and all proponents of such suits. The program is designed to deter cases before they are filed, assist in getting such cases dropped sooner rather than later, and provide substantive remedies when doctors are inappropriately forced to defend themselves in court.
Launched in 2002, Medical Justice has extensive experience with how the legal system impacts physician behavior. HealthCare 2.0 is a research and development project that harnesses the energy of a very powerful emotion; namely, that no physician wants to be sued- ever. HealthCare 2.0 asks all stakeholders to give up a little to receive much more. Patients transfer their potential right to sue in exchange for near-term benefits that include lower health insurance premiums, no-fault disability and life insurance for any injuries, and guarantees of patient safety. Physicians are immune from any litigation if they follow cost-effective algorithms, that they have developed, bottom-up. Also, because there is minimal litigation, professional liability premiums are significantly lower.
Better Health & Lower Cost
The Medical Justice system is proven and works. Medical Justice plan members are sued at a rate far lower than their unprotected cohort. The average physician in the US is sued at a rate of 8-12% a year. Medical Justice plan members are predominantly high-risk specialists. So, if anything, their baseline lawsuit rate should be even higher than the “average” physician. The results: Medical Justice plan members are sued at a rate of under 2% per year.
Through the Early Intervention program, Medical Justice plan members are dropped from cases sooner and more frequently than others. For example, in Ohio, most physicians who receive an intent to sue letter, are indeed sued. Only 10% of Medical Justice plan members who receive such letters meet that same fate. The majority are dropped before the letters evolve into bona fide lawsuits.
Finally, the tools employed by Medical Justice are a means to an end. If physicians can practice without fear of meritless litigation, there are endless opportunities to redeploy money currently wasted on defensive medicine for more valuable goals. The HealthCare 2.0 project is a market-based, voluntary solution based on retiring the current medico-legal tort paradigm. The model is financially robust, requiring no additional funding. Further, the model is based on sound legal principles. HealthCare 2.0 will next be tested in a pilot program.
