Hospitals sue Pennsylvania governor over malpractice insurance funding

The administration for Gov. Ed Rendell has violated the Pennsylvania Constitution and law by not funding a program to reduce doctors' malpractice costs, the Hospital & HealthSystem Association of Pennsylvania has charged in a petition in Commonwealth Court. The state's hospital lobby asked the court to order the administration to fully fund the state-funded program to reduce doctors' malpractice costs. A spokesman for Rendell said the hospital association clearly didn't understand the law "because the legislation does not provide for continued subsidies for malpractice costs for doctors and hospitals."