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AMA balks at proposal to refuse treatment to malpractice attorneys

Physician Practice Advisor, June 29, 2004

Dr. Chris Hawk's proposed policy was a simple one: No non-emergency medical care for malpractice attorneys and their families. But when Hawk, a South Carolina surgeon submitted it at the American Medical Association's (AMA) annual meeting last week, doctors denounced discrimination against any group of patients, according to a brief from Kaiser Family Foundation. 

Hawk withdrew the resolution but said that just putting the proposal on the table highlighted the magnitude of the problem. Physicians at the meeting argued that the stunt could harm AMA's  lobbying efforts to reduce medical malpractice costs.

Hawk's proposal is just the latest in a long line of physician tactics against malpractice lawyers, according to the foundation. Here are four examples predating Hawk:

• A physician in Mississippi and a neurosurgeon in New Hampshire wrote letters refusing care to lawyers in their states who did not support malpractice caps. 
  
• A hospital in Tampa prohibits its employees from testifying on behalf of plaintiffs in malpractice trials.
  
• A hospital in New Jersey voted to remove its chief of staff because he supported malpractice legislation that his colleagues opposed.
  
• A medical center in Texas fired a nurse whose husband is a lawyer in a firm that handles medical malpractice cases. Although the attorney didn't work on malpractice cases directly, the medical center said there was too great a potential for a conflict of interest.

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