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LEGISLATIVE
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

COMING OF AGE:

Celebrating 15 Years of Texas Tort Reform

By Joey Berlin, Texas Medicine

For many Texas physicians, Last year, he became medical director for the City of Robstown

the bad, pre-2003 memories Emergency Medical Service. In that role, he says, he’s realized how
may never go away. But those much easier it is to obtain liability coverage in Texas versus other
states. As long as his medics are practicing their craft rationally and
dark days have given way to reasonably, he doesn’t have to worry about a frivolous lawsuit.

“It’s no longer just me; it’s the people that I supervise. They’re
a new Texas and a new reality. touching people every day,” said Dr. Hensley, president of the

T housands of medical liability lawsuits — many dripping Nueces County Medical Society. “They’re seeing people in every
situation, from car wreck to heart attack to children drowning, and
with frivolity — driving Texas physicians out in droves?
things like that. Knowing that I’m protected from frivolity has
They’ve been replaced with an era in which doctors are
settling in Texas in record numbers, and specialists are filling voids made me really improve our protocols and our standards for pre-
hospital medicine.”
in rural areas.
Two decades ago, physicians might call the Texas Medical Asso- MORE DOCTORS, LESS WORRY
ciation in tears because they had lost their medical liability coverage House Bill 4, the Medical Malpractice and Tort Reform Act of
and no one else would insure them. Now, insurance rates are at 2003, went into effect on Sept. 1 that year, thanks to advocacy by
staggering lows, and dozens of companies are competing for the TMA, the Texas Alliance for Patient Access (TAPA), the Texas
doctors’ business. Medical Liability Trust (TMLT), and others. The same month, Texas
Physicians in Texas no longer face the same pressure to practice voters approved Proposition 12, an amendment to the Texas Con-
defensively — what emergency physician Justin Hensley, MD, calls stitution that authorized the state legislature to cap noneconomic
“CYA-type medicine.” And it’s not nearly as likely a patient’s family damages in health care liability cases.
member will take up arms in legal target practice, calling a Texas That vote protected the law’s $250,000 limit on noneconomic
doctor to shake him or her down for cash to make an anticipated damages against individual physicians, and a total “stacked”
lawsuit “go away.” noneconomic cap of $750,000 if health care institutions also are
The TMA-backed tort reforms that went into effect 15 years ago found liable. The law features other crucial protections, such as
changed all that, and proponents say physicians and patients alike providing personal immunity to physicians working for govern-
are in better shape because of it. mental entities, including state medical schools. There is no cap
Seven years ago, because of tort reform, Dr. Hensley and his wife, on economic damages.
pediatrician Katherine Hensley, MD, moved to Corpus Christi from A decade and a half later, the law’s power shows up in both the
North Carolina, a state where doctors were still ripe and constant numbers and the attitudes of physicians across the state.
liability targets. They quickly appreciated the saner liability environ- Perhaps the most poignant statistic: The Texas Medical Board has
ment in their new home, and today, Dr. Justin Hensley says his com- licensed record numbers of new physicians in the years post-tort
fort level practicing in Texas may be even higher. reform. (See “A Flood of New Physicians,” page 13.)

12 San Antonio Medicine • January 2019