Legislative Update: Week of July 16th

Picture of the Committee Room

The House and Senate reconvened for their one day at the Capitol for July. The Senate concentrated on school teacher retirement reform while the House continued to brush aside calls for the Speaker to resign due to a report published by the Kent County Prosecutor claiming that the Speaker and Rep. Roy Schmidt attempted to defraud the public with the changing of parties that Rep. Schmidt did before the primary filing date. The biggest event of the day though, was the Senate Insurance committee which continued taking testimony on Senate Bill 1115-1118, commonly known as the "Patients First Reform Package."



Dr Gibson-Fountain leading off the
testimony for MSMS Physicians

The Senate Insurance committee started just after 8:00am where four hours of testimony was scheduled for that day. MSMS along with the Trial Bar worked hard to rally their respective memberships to attend the committee meeting. The building and committee room were opened by 6:30 am and by 8:00 am the room was extremely passed capacity. The Trial bar bought white t-shirts that they had handed out to those who came to support their cause to stop the package of bills.
MSMS had six people lined up to testify including:

• Dr. John Bizon, President
• Dr. Steven Newman, Immediate Past President
• Dr. Cheryl Gibson-Fountain, Board Member
• Patrick Haddad, Attorney for MSMS
• Robert Karam, Practice Manager and Immediate Past President of MMGMA
• Justice Cliff Taylor, Former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Dr. Newman testifying.

Justice Taylor lead off the testimony providing insights counter to the arguments made by the litany of trial attorneys that went in the previous hearings. As for the physician testimony Dr. Gibson-Fountain lead off the testimony providing insights on her experiences and how the package would create greater access for patients. Gibson-Fountain testified:

"Just as is the case in many of the rural areas of Northern Michigan, as a physician who primarily serves Detroit, there is not a long line of young physicians looking to take my place if I were to retire.  As physicians, our services are in demand across the country and the physicians trained in Michigan and elsewhere generally have multiple job offers across the country.  We need your help and support to make Michigan an attractive state to practice by making very reasonable changes to the statutes regarding professional liability."

Dr. Bizon with his daughter Dr. Burturm
testifying on the reform package.

Dr. Gibson-Fountain took a series of questions from the Senate panel and was able to offer direct answers to their questions. Dr. Newman was the second physician to testify stressing that the ability of the patients to obtain relief if there was a negligence was still available with this package. Dr. Newman did take the time to differentiate between the Medical Society and the State Bar association as those on the other side of the issue were blaming the Medical Society for not taking actions to have the licenses of the repeat offenders taken away. MSMS does not have the ability to do that like the State Bar does, that responsibility is left to the Board of Medicine.

Dr. Rose Ramirez interviewing with
local news.

Dr. Bizon finished the round of testimony for MSMS providing a look into what the changes could mean for medicine in Michigan. Bizon went on to testify:

"The bottom line is that tort reform works.  Whether in Michigan or any of the other states that have adopted tort reforms, we repeatedly see the same thing—the insurance market stabilizes and physicians are able, once again, to return to practice.  Michigan has a strong history of being a leader and an innovator in the area of tort reforms."

The committee ended the day without taking any action on the legislation, but was a positive for MSMS. We were able to push our agenda forward and with the help of those who attended the committee it showed the members of the committee that there is support for the package.

 Now both sides will head back to work to find ways to continue to push their messages. Continue staying with MSMS to get updates on the activity of this package of bills along with others at http://www.msms.org/advocacy.