USA Today on Tuesday published an editorial and an opinion piece on establishing "health courts" that would only try medical malpractice cases. Summaries appear below.USA Today: Health courts -- in which "judges with experience in medicine would try cases without juries" -- are an "intriguing idea" to address the current medical liability system's "deeper problems," which damage caps cannot solve, according to the editorial. One "potential advantag[e]" of health courts would be that judges could choose "impartial experts to guide them," rather than the current system of "dueling experts hired by each side," the editorial states. In addition, "unlike juries, judges would issue written opinions that establish precedents and standards of care." Another advantage would be "fairer and more consistent" awards. Health court judges could determine awards based on a "schedule of benefits, similar to workers' compensation," rather than the current system in which "juries sometimes base awards more on sympathy than facts." A health court system also "might reduce the incentive for doctors to engage in defensive medicine that puts patients at risk" (USA Today, 7/5).

Todd Smith, USA Today: Replacing the "basic fairness of individualized justice determined by the wisdom" of a jury with "one-size-fits-all" health courts is a "bad idea," Smith, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, writes. According to Smith, the "fundamental unfairness" of a health court system is "the assumption that all similar injuries are the same." Eliminating juries "insults the hard-working Americans who do their civic duty serving on juries," Smith writes. In addition, "forcing states" to establish "huge new legal bureaucracies and pay for well-qualified experts ... would be prohibitively expensive" and would further strain states' budgets, he says. Better solutions to problems in the medical liability system are "patient safety reform" to reduce the number of medical errors, "insurance reform" to lower "inflated insurance premiums" and "common-sense reform" to make sure "only deserving cases go to trial," Smith writes (Smith, USA Today, 7/5).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.