Governor Ehrlich’s •
Legislative Initiatives
Health Care Initiatives
Maryland Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act
Governor Ehrlich is committed to lowering the costs and increasing the availability of health care in the State.
Establishing reasonable limits on medical malpractice awards is one factor to ensure affordable, accessible, and
'quality health care in the State. The State is lacing a crisis in the medical'profession. For doctors, medical
malpractice rates rose 28% this year, after rising 10% last year. Malpractice premiums for some State hospitals
have risen even more dramatically. Some health care practitioners have already closed their practices, and there
is the real possibility that more will do so, especially in high risk practices.
Governor Ehrlich has long been a supporter of reasonable tort reform measures, especially in the area of medical
malpractice. He believes that wrongly injured patients deserve to be compensated for their injuries. He also
recognizes, however, that the more money diat is spent on malpractice claims and insurance premiums, the less
there is to spend on health care. Governor Ehrlich is therefore proposing the following medical malpractice bill
for this session.
• The medical malpractice bill allows a party defending against a medical malpractice claim to make an
offer of judgment to the claimant. If the claimant does not accept the offer of judgment and at trial of
the case the verdict is less favorable to the claimant than the offer of judgment, the claimant must pay
the defending party the costs incurred from the time of the offer of judgment, including reasonable
attorney's fees. This provision is modeled after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68 which was adopted
in 1937.
• The bill reduces the cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases from $635,000 with
an annual $ 1 5,000 escalator to a flat cap of $500,000. Noneconomic damages serve to compensate an
individual for pain, suffering, inconvenience, and other damages that, unlike damages for medical
costs and lost wages, are not measurable in terms of money. In a wrongful death case, noneconomic
damages compensate surviving family members for their mental anguish, emotional pain and
suffering, loss of society, and other similar damages.
• The bill limits economic damages (typically medical bills and lost wages) as follows. First, for past
medical bills the claimant may only be compensated for the amount actually paid by the claimant or
on the claimant's behalf (e.g. by an insurance company or HMO), not for the amount billed.
Typically, doctors and other health care providers accept less than the amount that they bill. Second,
for the same reason, a claimant will be compensated for future medical costs at the current medicare
rate for the service, adjusted for inflation. Thirdly, for both past and future lost wages, an award shall
exclude any taxes the claimant would have paid. Tort judgments are not subject to taxation.
• If the amount of future economic damages and noneconomic damages total more than $250,000, a
claimant will be paid those damages, less $100,000 to be paid immediately, through periodic
payments. The periodic payments will be paid based either on the life expectancy of the claimant or
the number of years that the claimant will require medical care or be disabled. In wrongful death
cases, noneconomic damages will be paid at the same time as the past economic damagis, and only
future economic damages over $250,000 will be subject to periodic payments.
