Senate bill would raise bar for proving ER malpractice
The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, AZ - Jun 19, 2009
A Senate panel voted Wednesday to make it harder for patients hurt in emergency rooms to collect damages from the doctors, hospitals and other health-care providers who cause their injuries...

Opponents lining up against Pa. tax increase
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA - Jun 19, 2009
...He also wants to delay the phaseout of a tax on business assets; increase the cigarette tax; enact a new tax on cigars, smokeless tobacco and natural gas extracted from Marcellus shale wells; dip into the state's "Rainy Day Fund'' for emergencies; and tap a surplus in a fund to help doctors pay for medical malpractice insurance...

Budget plan ousts some taxes, adds furloughs
The Union Leader, Manchester, NH - Jun 19, 2009
...Those gains did not bring the committee completely out of the woods. Medical providers threatened to derail the plan by suing yesterday to stop transfer of $110 million from the Joint Underwriting Account, a medical malpractice fund with a huge surplus...

Editorial: Extreme makeover
Las Vegas Review-Journal, NV - Jun 19, 2009
...He then attempted to sweeten the pot by offering something back -- in the doctors' case, some partial protection from the fear of malpractice lawsuits that now lead doctors to order expensive medical tests most parties consider unnecessary...

Opinion - Froma Harrop: Obama succumbs to old-style politics
Mail Tribune, Medford, OR - Jun 19, 2009
...One, changing the medical-malpractice law is low-hanging fruit in the monumental task of controlling runaway costs. Doctors order unnecessary treatments as a defense against litigation and spend untold billions of health-care dollars on malpractice insurance...

Editorial: Another view: Naysayers aside, country needs health care reform
Pasadena Star-News, CA (Newsday) - Jun 18, 2009
...He recently told doctors, for instance, that while he agrees malpractice reform should be on the table, he won't advocate caps on jury awards, since they're unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed...

Joint and several provision dropped
Wisconsin Law Journal, Milwaukee, WI - Jun 18, 2009
Both houses of the Wisconsin Legislature have dropped a budget provision that would have permitted defendants to face full liability for damages even if they bear only 1 percent of the fault...

Thursday at the North Carolina General Assembly
WCNC-TV, Charlotte, NC (Associated Press) - Jun 18, 2009
.._ Approved H703, which would create an online database describing medical malpractice judgments or awards, or legal settlements of $75,000 or more, involving physicians or physician assistants...