Don't Use Texas as Model for Tort Reform, Advocacy Group Warns

Dan Stultz, MD, president/CEO of the Texas Hospital Association, also responded to the Public Citizen accusations.

"The medical liability reforms passed in 2003 have produced the desired result: more doctors are willing to practice medicine in Texas. As we work to expand healthcare coverage and improve the delivery system, preserving Texans' access to medical services is critical," says Stultz.

According to the Public Citizen report, the cost of healthcare has nearly doubled the national average, spending increases for diagnostic tests exceed the national average, and the number of uninsured increased and remains the highest in the country, all since liability laws took effect.

"Access to care in Texas remains a crisis," according to Public Citizen. "Reductions in malpractice cases [are] a windfall to doctors and insurance companies."

Additionally, the group said, the cost of health insurance has more than doubled, the growth in the number of doctors per capita has slowed, and the number of doctors per capita in underserved rural areas has declined.

Though Fleming says that physician medical malpractice premiums have dropped 37% since 2003, the Public Citizen report said that's "the only improvement."

The advocacy group issued its report because of claims made by several member of Congress, specifically Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who proposed a Senate health insurance amendment that was filed Dec. 9.

"Liability opponents credit the Texas law with luring droves of new physicians to the state. For example, Kyl claims, 'Because of the Texas reforms, Texas saw an overall growth rate of 31% in the number of new physicians,' according to Public Citizen.

"In fact, the overall population of physicians in Texas has grown at a far slower rate than Kyl claims. But even the increase Texas has seen can mostly be explained by growth in the state's population. The state's per capita physician population increased by only .4 % from 2003 to 2009—which is far less than the 8% per capita increase during the equivalent period of time leading up to the law, from 1997 to 2003."

"The shortage of doctors in rural Texas—for which litigation is often blamed—grew slightly worse after the liability restricts were enacted," the report continued. "From 2003 to 2009, the per capita population of doctors in non-metropolitan areas declined by .8%.