Chicago Tribune Review,
Jan 25, 2005

Doctors highlight Illinois exodus

BY SUSAN KUCZKA
STAFF REPORTER

Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of wearing wristbands to promote causes, a group of North Shore physicians launched a campaign Monday to draw attention to doctor flight from Illinois, which they blame on escalating medical liability costs.

The lime green wristbands, identical to plastic hospital bracelets, will be distributed to physicians by the Lake County Medical Society as Congress prepares to tackle health-care reform this spring.

The "Keep DOCTORS in ILLINOIS" wristbands were obtained from a physicians group Downstate, an area hard hit by an exodus of doctors.

"There's no way to recoup the losses . . . which is why so many doctors are fleeing to Wisconsin and other states with medical liability reform," said Dr. Jay Alexander of North Shore Cardiologists.

In the last three years, medical liability premiums for the group have increased to $1.2 million annually from around $225,000, Alexander said during a news conference at Bannockburn Mediplex.

"Our patients need to understand that if no medical malpractice reforms are enacted, in due time there will be no doctors practicing in all of Illinois," said Dr. Brian Locker, an obstetrician from Park Ridge, who said his clinic recently stopped accepting Medicare and Medicaid patients.

The green wristbands were the brainchild of Dr. Lynne Nowak, a physician from Downstate Belleville, who began producing them last fall after noticing the popularity of the yellow wristband with the word "LIVESTRONG," promoting cyclist Lance Armstrong's foundation to fight cancer.

The medical malpractice issue took center stage last year in the race for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court after doctors complained that skyrocketing premiums were forcing an increasing number of physicians to move out of the state. Doctors groups pumped thousands of dollars behind the victorious GOP candidate, Lloyd Karmeier, hoping for favorable rulings on malpractice issues.

President Bush also focused attention on the problem when he traveled to Collinsville in southern Illinois earlier this month to launch a White House campaign for limits on class-action lawsuits and medical malpractice awards.

The American Tort Reform Association had dubbed the Collinsville area the nation's No. 1 "judicial hellhole" because of its many class-action lawsuits and cases involving products that contain asbestos.

Among those pushing for tort reform on behalf of physicians is U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), whose 10th District includes the North Shore and Lake County. He is optimistic that legislation to cap medical malpractice liability awards for non-economic damages will be approved soon in Washington.

"If we do not enact reforms soon, patients will die," said Kirk, co-sponsor of the so-called Help, Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act, expected to be reintroduced in Congress this month.

The legislation would cap at $250,000 the amount victims of medical malpractice could win for "non-economic damages" such as pain and suffering.

More than two dozen states, including Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri, have enacted malpractice insurance reforms aimed at keeping down patient costs. But federal legislation is needed to help residents of states--including Illinois-- that have balked at such measures, Kirk said.

"A neurosurgeon practicing in Lake County will have to pay over $200,000 in malpractice insurance, [while] that same neurosurgeon practicing right across the Wisconsin border, a very short drive from here, will pay less than a quarter of that," he said.

Illinois Senate Republican leader Frank Watson (R-Greenville) has identified medical malpractice reform as one of the most pressing issues facing the state, but republicans give the issue little chance of passage in the Democrat-controlled General Assembly.

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