New Mexico lawmakers are moving forward with a new version of a medical malpractice overhaul bill that would limit the amount jurors could award in punitive damages but includes a higher cap for large hospital systems than other providers.
The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Wednesday evening to approve House Bill 99 after stripping an amendment that would have left punitive damages uncapped for corporate hospitals. The bill still has to make it through a House floor vote, as well as the Senate before the legislative session ends next week.
Medical malpractice has turned into one of the central issues before lawmakers this year, with supporters arguing punitive damage caps are a crucial step in ameliorating New Mexico’s severe shortage of doctors. Such limits could lower both the risk doctors face to practice in the state and the cost of their malpractice insurance, supporters say.
Opponents have argued changes to the law would leave victims with fewer avenues to justice without meaningfully improving the provider supply.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham “fully supports” HB 99, spokesperson Leah March wrote in an email Wednesday. The governor has called for action on the medical malpractice law in the last year of her final term and has expressed willingness to call a special session to find a compromise on the matter.
With just a week remaining in this year’s legislative session, however, time is running short — so much so that senators may blaze their own path, said Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a Las Cruces Democrat and a personal injury attorney whose firm represents clients with malpractice cases.
As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cervantes is a crucial voice on the issue.
“We are now well past three weeks with negotiations going on in the House,” Cervantes said. “We’ve been eager to see what bill comes over, but we’re to a point where we likely in the Senate are probably going to have to start our own bill.”
Rep. Christine Chandler, a Los Alamos Democrat and sponsor of HB 99, asserted there’s still time to get the bill across the finish line.
“I would like to think that the Senate is poised to address it promptly and give it a priority — because it’s a priority of the residents in this state,” said Chandler, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. “We are hearing it loud and clear from our constituents: It needs to get done.”
New version of HB 99
Punitive damages — which are intended to punish providers for wrongdoing and aren’t subject to any caps under state law — are a point of particular focus this year.
Under HB 99, punitive damages would be limited to around $900,000 for independent doctors, $1 million for independent outpatient clinics and $6 million for locally owned and operated hospitals — the same caps set for most compensatory damages in medical malpractice cases.
The version approved by the House Judiciary Committee would create a higher tier for claims against large hospitals and hospital-controlled outpatient facilities, capping punitive damages at two and a half times the limits the bill establishes for local hospitals.
For example, Chandler said, hospitals like Holy Cross Medical Center — a 25-bed hospital in Taos — would fall into the tier with lower punitive damage caps. Major hospital systems, such as Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Lovelace Health Systems and Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, would be subject to the higher damage cap, she added.
HB 99 also would raise the standard of proof required for awarding punitive damages and other policy changes.
The latest version of the bill — including the tiered system for punitive damages — was the result of continued discussion, Chandler said.
“Is everybody thrilled and delighted with this? No. … I don’t think the trial lawyers are completely satisfied, and the hospitals are not completely satisfied — but I think it’s reasonable,” she said.
Time running out
The bill will have to rocket through several proceedings to get to the governor’s desk.
Cervantes sees that as a problem.
“In the Senate, we can’t simply respond to something that we receive at the last minute and find ourselves in a take-it-or-leave-it situation,” he said.
Chandler pushed back on a claim the Senate won’t have adequate time to consider HB 99.
“We have received many a complicated bill from the Senate with less than a week to address the issue — so it can be done,” she said.
Cervantes argued against the notion an abundance of trial lawyers in the Legislature could benefit financially from uncapped punitive damages, saying that is a “misconception” perpetuated by the press.
Rather, he said, attorneys in the Legislature provide a helpful perspective while crafting new laws.
“We’ve always put the attorneys in the Legislature on the judiciary committees. That’s the purpose of that committee, and that’s a valuable resource,” Cervantes said.
He’s not opposed to returning for a special session on medical malpractice, he added, noting that could provide additional time to find a “permanent solution” to bring down medical malpractice insurance rates for doctors and hospitals.
House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said during Wednesday’s committee meeting the trial lawyers who “fight for the little guy” and the doctors have been treated unfairly in the malpractice law debate.
“We’ve got to stop this demonization of folks,” he said.
Daniel J. Chacón and Nathan Brown of The New Mexican contributed.