LIABILITY UPDATE by Donna Baver Rovito

November 3, 2006

 

Dear Health Care Provider or Consumer,

 

Next Tuesday's election is important for many reasons, but it has special significance for both patients and health care professionals. 

 

One of the candidates for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Senator Rick Santorum, has proven conclusively that he consistently supports medicine's efforts to provide quality care - while his opponent, quite simply, has NOT.

 

As a leader in the Senate, Rick Santorum has been a champion for safety, quality, research, and access to care for every Pennsylvanian and every American.  Sen. Santorum has earned the respect of health care professionals throughout the nation, and for good reason. 

 

In addition to the health care leaders listed at the end of this letter, Rick Santorum has been endorsed by the American Osteopathic Association Political Action Committee, the Pennsylvania Medical Society Political Action Committee (PAC), Ob/Gyns for Women's Health PAC, Pennsylvania Orthopaedic PAC and the Pennsylvania Physicians for the Protection of Specialty Care (3PSC).  He is strongly supported by the AMA's Political Action Committe (AMPAC). And because he wants to ensure that patients continue to have timely access to quality health care, Rick Santorum is also supported by The American Association of Neurological Surgeons PAC.  His opponent has received little or no support from the medical community, also for good reason.

 

Rick Santorum is GOOD for doctors, patients and everyone concerned with quality health care.  Here's why:

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Fighting Lawsuit Abuse

 

* As Conference Chairman, Senator Santorum was instrumental in pushing liability reform high on the Senate’s agenda.  Without Rick Santorum's outspoken leadership, the political viability of legal reforms could potentially wither on the vine, particularly since Bob Casey, Jr. opposes virtually all legal reforms.

 

* Rick introduced the Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act.  New data from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) 2006 Survey on Professional Liability indicates that 69.8% of America's ob-gyns have made one or more changes to their practice, like eliminating obstetrics, reducing high-risk patients and surgery or increasing C-section births, as a result of the affordability and/or availability of professional liability insurance. Reforms are vitally needed to ensure women’s access to quality care, but a filibuster in the Senate, which Bob Casey, Jr. would have supported, prevented passage of this important measure.

 

* Rick co-sponsored the Medical Care Access Protection Act, to decrease frivolous lawsuits, and ensure that injured patients, not trial lawyers, receive fair compensation by placing reasonable limits on non-economic damages and a sliding scale for attorneys' fees. 

 

* Rick sponsored the Community Health Center Volunteer Physician Protection Act and the Expanding Charitable and Volunteer Opportunities Act, which protect volunteer physicians who serve in community health centers.

 

* Due to his support for medical liability reform, Sen. Santorum has been identified by personal injury lawyers across the country as their #1 target.  To that end, lawyers and law firms have funded the major part of his opponent's campaign, contributing over $2.4 million, making Bob Casey, Jr. the second-highest recipient of lawyer and law firm political funding in the nation, second only to Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics at www.OpenSecrets.org.

 

 

Health Care Accessibility

 

* Rick has a meaningful plan to help cover the uninsured, including enhancing and improving Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) – tax free, portable accounts that empower consumers to make informed choices and take control over their own healthcare expenses.  

 

* Rick introduced the Health Care Tax Relief for the Uninsured Act to provide tax credits to small businesses or uninsured Americans to purchase insurance or health savings accounts.

 

* Rick is a cosponsor of the Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2005, which would create Small Business Health Plans and establish Association Health Plans (AHP’s), to allow small business employers to join together to obtain better insurance rates.

 

* Rick supports the Healthy Communities Access Program, which funds community health centers, benefiting about 10.3 million of our nation’s low-income, uninsured and under-insured people by providing effective and efficient primary and preventive health care services.

 

 

Support for Medicare

 

* Rick is a leader in the effort to provide fair Medicare payment for physicians, to prevent the scheduled severe cuts, and help doctors keep pace with the rising cost of staying in practice.  Sen. Santorum has supported every key vote backed by the AMA and other supporters in Congress committed to fixing the flawed reimbursement formula used by Medicare. 

 

* The Senate passed, with Rick Santorum's support and leadership, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which provides Medicare beneficiaries with a prescription drug benefit and expanded health plan options.  He also supports maintaining American productionof drugs to guarantee that the FDA's high quality standards are met. The Act also improves rural access to health care by increasing funding for rural hospitals.

 

* Rick worked to strengthen and enhance prescription drug coverage for Pennsylvanians in PACE and PACENET and cosponsored legislation that would expand access to Medicare home health care services in rural areas.

 

 

Support for Safety, Research and Technology

 

* Rick supported a budget resolution in 1998 which called for doubling the NIH budget over a period of five years, raising our investment from $13.7 billion in 1998 to $27.2 billion in 2003.  Rick recognizes the important role the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plays in supporting biomedical research and development at leading research institutions nationwide, and supports federal funding for basic, clinical, and translational research within the NIH.

 

* Rick voted for the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act to increase patient safety and improve the quality of health care.

 

* Rick supports the Access to Emergency Medical Services Act to protect patients' access to medical care in an emergency.

 

* Rick authored and has successfully enacted provisions of his Kidney Care Quality and Improvement Act of 2005 so that patients with kidney failure have access to lifesaving dialysis treatment.

 

* Rick authored and has successfully enacted provisions of his Colon Cancer Screen for Life Act to provide colonoscopy as a covered Medicare Benefit.

  

* Rick is the author and champion of the bipartisan Combating Autism Act of 2005, which would authorize $860 million over five years to combat autism through research, screening, intervention, and education.

 

* Rick cosponsored the Ronald Reagan Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act, to fund Alzheimer’s research and increase public education about prevention.

 

* Rick Santorum has worked for the last several years to address funding imbalances that prevent accurate detection and treatment for Lyme Disease, America’s most common tick-borne illness

 

* Rick is a member of the Congressional Medical Technology Caucus, to promote advances in medical technology.

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Conversely, although Rick's opponent SAYS that health care is his "number one priority," his ideas are all wrong. 

 

Bob Casey, Jr. supports government-run health care plans that would cause great damage to our health care system, as well as outsourcing production of prescription drugs to foreign nations which don't meet the FDA's high standards, jeopardizing both Pennsylvania jobs and Pennsylvania patients.  He denies that a medical liability crisis exists, even though only 7.8% of residents trained in PA stayed in PA to practice in 2004, and he opposes measures that would improve the legal climate in PA and attract young doctors to practice here.  This is a dangerous attitude, as both Pennsylvania's citizens AND Pennsylvania's doctors are growing older.  Plus, Casey has consistently avoided members of the medical community during this campaign, as well as refusing to answer questions from most medical publications or physician advocacy groups.  If health care really is his "number one priority," wouldn't he want input from physicians and other health care professionals, as well as from the lawyers who support his campaign?

 

Bottom line - Rick Santorum has a long record of supporting the medical profession and health care in general.  This Tuesday, he needs YOUR support, so he can continue to advocate for patients, physicians and everyone else who cares about quality health care.

 

Please copy this letter and add your name to the list of health care leaders below. Then, email, give, or send it to everyone you know. Use your email address book, holiday card list or office Rolodex.  Carry copies everywhere you go between now and Tuesday.

 

Take some time to call family and friends and ask for their support this weekend.  Contact your local campaign office or go to www.RickSantorum.com to volunteer.  Make sure that you, your family and your office staff VOTE on Tuesday.

 

Rick Santorum has been YOUR voice in the U.S. Senate....and his opponent has shown that he will be the voice of the personal injury lawyers who support him.  Whose voice will be better for America's health?

 

Now, more than ever, Rick needs your support so he can continue to do medicine's work in the U.S. Senate.

 

Please vote for your patients on Tuesday.  Please support Rick Santorum for U.S. Senate. 

 

We do.

 

Sincerely,   

Domingo T. Alvear, MD

Founder, World Surgical Foundation

PA Med. Soc. International Medical  

   Graduate Trustee

Pediatric Surgery

Harrisburg, PA 

 

Elena Antonelli, MD
Occupational Medicine/Medical Consultant
Newtown, PA

 

Terrence E. Babb, MD, FAAFP, FACOG, FACS

Secretary, PA Med. Soc. Board of Trustees

Member, PA ACOG Advisory Council

Obstetrics/Gynecology

and

Kim Babb

Clearfield, PA  

 

Richard D. Baltz, MD

Pediatric Medicine

Harrisburg, PA

 

George A. Beylouny

Board of Trustees, Schlow Library

Board of Trustees, WPSU

Concerned Citizen

State College, PA

 

Thomas Bonekemper, MD, JD

Internal Medicine (Retired)

Quakertown, PA

 

Gary Bonfante, DO

Emergency Medicine

Salisbury Township, PA

 

Dell R. Burkey, MD

Anesthesia

Philadelphia, PA

 

William G. Cano, MD

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Pain Medicine Subspecialty

Pottstown, PA

 

Dave Caucci, MD, FAAOS 

Orthopaedic Surgery

Clarks Summit, PA

and

Elizabeth Kerl Caucci, RPh

Registered Pharmacist

Scranton, PA

 

Laurie Cohen, DO

Pediatric Medicine

Allentown, PA

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Peter M. Daloni, MD

Urology

Sharon, PA

 

Christopher J. DeFlitch, MD
Director & Vice-Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine
Physician Champion, Connected

Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Hershey, PA

 

Francis X. DeLone, Jr. MD

Associate Professor, Department of Surgery

University of Pennsylvania Hospital

Philadelphia, PA

 

Nicholas A. DiNubile, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery

Havertown, PA

 

Matthew J. Dougherty MD

Philadelphia, PA

 

Wayne Dubov, MD

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Allentown, PA

 

Katherine C. Erlichman, DO

Ophthalmology 

Everett, PA

 

Raymond A. Fritz, Jr., DPM

Podiatry

Allentown, PA

 

R L Furigay, MD, FACS

General Surgery

Windber, PA

 

Larry Glazerman, MD

Obstetrics/Gynecology

Allentown, PA

 

Richard T. Goldhahn Jr., MD

Anatomic, Clinical and Dermatopathology

Abington Memorial Hospital

Abington, PA

 

Marilyn Heine, MD

Emergency Medicine

Hematology Oncology

Bucks County, PA

 

Carla C. Hess, BSN

School Nurse (Retired)

Whitehall, PA

 

Margaret Trexler Hessen, MD

Board of Directors, Delaware County

   Medical Society

Infectious Diseases (prematurely retired

   due to medical liability crisis) 

Bryn Mawr, PA

 

James J. Holstein, MD

Radiology

Springfield, PA

 

Charles D. Hummer, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery

Chester, PA 

 

R. Drew Krajeski, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery

and

Robin Krajeski

Langhorne, PA 

 

Helen F. Krause, MD

Past President: International Society of

   Otolaryngic Allergy and Immunology,

   American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy,

   PA Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and

   Neck Surgery and the Pittsburgh Otologic

   Society

Otolaryngology

Pittsburgh, PA

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Jeffrey L. Lenow, MD, JD, FAAFP
Assoc. Professor, Family/Community Med.

Jefferson Medical College
Thomas Jefferson University

Philadelphia, PA

 

Sal Lofaro, MD

President-elect, Delaware County Med. Soc.

Past President, Delaware Cty. Mem. Hosp.

Nephrology

Drexel Hill, PA

 

Thomas L. Manzo, MD

Ophthalmology

Pottstown. PA

 

J. Michael Moses, MD

President, Western PA Orthopaedics

   and Sports Medicine, Inc.

Chairman, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery,

   Memorial Medical Center

Chair, Board of the Physicians Health

   Programs, Foundation of  PA Med. Soc.

Secretary, PA Orthopaedic Society

Orthopaedic Surgery

Johnstown, PA

 

Michael J. O'Donnell, MD

Dermatologic Surgery

Clarks Summit, PA

 

John J. Pagan MD, FACS

General Surgery

Sellersville, PA

 

Don Paris, Esquire

(Former NJ, NY, DC Attorney/

   liability reform supporter)

Delray Beach, FL

 

Scot Paris, MD

President, Pennsylvania Physicians for the

   Protection of Specialty Care

General Surgery

Pottstown, PA

 

Colleen Pedrotty RN, MS, CNS, SANE
St Mary Medical Center
Langhorne, PA

 

Thomas Peff, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery

Montgomery County, PA

 

Danae Powers, MD
PA Patient Safety Authority Board, 2002-2005
Pa Medical Society Council on Policy,

   Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
Past President, Centre County Med.Soc. 

Anesthesiology

State College, PA 

 

Gary M. Pryblick, DO

Family Medicine

Allentown, PA

 

Judith R. Pryblick, DO

Family Medicine

Allentown, PA

Gregory J. Radio, MD

Obstetrics/Gynecology

Allentown, PA

 

James W. Redka, MD

Family Medicine

Williamsport, PA

 

Robert J. Rienzo, M.D.

Diagnostic Radiology

Allentown, PA

 

Peter F. Rovito, MD, FACS

General and Bariatric Surgery

Full Clinical Prof., PSU College of Medicine

Donna Baver Rovito

Editor, "Liability Update"

Allentown, PA 

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Benjamin Schlechter, MD, FACS