MICRA: Haven't we all seen this before? August 26, 2013 General Medical Malpractice, MICRA, Medical Liability 0 For nearly four decades California trial attorneys have been trying to rewrite the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). By now, you’ve likely heard the main narrative spun by the trial lawyer-backed Consumer Watchdog and other MICRA opponents – 38 years is too long for a law such as MICRA to exist without being updated in some fashion. Oddly enough, Consumer Watchdog and others are quick to leave out the fact that the only time MICRA was successfully altered, trial lawyers agreed to back off in exchange for a bigger piece of the pie when it came time to calculate attorney fees. The update, which took place as part of the now infamous “Napkin Deal,” saw MICRA’s tiered method of calculating attorney fees altered in a way that allowed attorneys to assess fees at a much higher rate than what was originally allowed for under the law. To an outsider, the changes might look subtle, but on a hypothetical award of $600,000, attorney fees following the Napkin Deal would be $161,666. Before the deal, fees would have been only $101,666. That’s an extra $60,000 going into the pockets of trial lawyers rather than the consumers they swear to be protecting. Adding to the irony is the fact that, in exchange for the larger pay day, trial attorneys promised to stop pushing for changes to MICRA for at least five years. Now, the same MICRA opponents are calling for reform, using the tagline “38 is too late.” However, nowhere in their campaign literature does it mention that for five of those years, attorneys were sitting on their hands after being bought off in one of the most infamous backroom deals in California’s political history. It’s also worth mentioning that the entire reason the Napkin Deal took place was that the trial lawyers were threatening to launch a ballot initiative fight if action wasn’t taken by the Legislature. This all sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? In short, the last time trial lawyers called for reforms to MICRA, they found a way to circumvent some of the largest consumer protections built into law and swore to stop advocating for consumers in exchange for a fatter paycheck. Can we really expect them to behave any differently this time around? The California Medical Association (CMA) and our allies have amassed more than $28 million to protect MICRA from the trial attorneys’ latest repeal efforts. In August alone, groups such as the California Hospital Association, the Doctor’s Company, the California Dental Association, the Medical Insurance Exchange of California, NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company and the Cooperative of American Physicians have all put up multi-million dollar figures to derail these efforts. Our coalition is strong, but the help of individual CMA members will still go a long way to protect MICRA. To learn more about MICRA and how you can help in the fight, visit www.cmanet.org/micra. Comments are closed.
