Common Good, the nonpartisan legal reform coalition, announced today that identical bipartisan bills have been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives that would enable states to create special health courts on a pilot project basis. Advancing an idea developed by Common Good and researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, the bills authorize funding for states to create alternative administrative health systems, including health courts, on a pilot project basis.

The Senate bill was introduced by Senators Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Max Baucus (D-MT). The House bill was introduced by Representatives Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Mac Thornberry (R-TX).

Known as the Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act, the bills are backed by a broad coalition of prominent organizations in patient safety, health care, and public policy, including:

-- American Academy of Family Physicians
-- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
-- American Osteopathic Association
-- Consumers Advancing Patient Safety
-- The Joint Commission
-- National Committee for Quality Assurance
-- Progressive Policy Institute

AARP also supports this initiative. John Rother, Policy Director for AARP said, "Testing of alternatives to the current tort system that promote faster and fairer compensation to injured patients and that also promote quality improvement is a necessary part of the movement to improve the performance of our healthcare system."

The bills would authorize the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to award up to 10 demonstration grants to states for the development, implementation and evaluation of alternatives to current tort litigation for resolving disputes over medical injuries. The bills' purpose is to restore fairness and reliability to the medical justice system by fostering such alternatives. The alternatives could include the creation of special health courts that would expedite medical injury cases, provide prompt and reasonable compensation to injured patients, and facilitate enhancements in patient safety. The bills differ from an earlier version by specifying that all pilot projects shall provide for opt-out or voluntary withdrawal.

The hallmark of health courts would be full-time judges with health care expertise, whose sole focus would be on addressing medical malpractice cases. Special health courts would be devoted to addressing health care issues, much as existing specialized courts focus on other areas of law: admiralty courts, tax courts, drug courts, bankruptcy courts, and administrative tribunals in areas ranging from workers' compensation to vaccine liability. Special health courts would ensure that patients injured by mistakes would be reliably compensated, without having to pay one third or more to lawyers.

"Senators Enzi and Baucus and Congressmen Cooper and Thornberry are leading the way to restoring reliability to medical justice in America," said Philip K. Howard, Chair of Common Good. "Reliable justice is essential to controlling skyrocketing costs and restoring a culture of openness. Special health courts offer justice reliable for patients and doctors alike, providing speedier and more equitable compensation for medical errors and affirmative rulings to improve patient safety and judicial consistency."

"Medical errors resulted in the death of my husband and a serious injury to my son," said Susan E. Sheridan, Co-Founder and President, Consumers Advancing Patient Safety. "I believe that reforming the medical liability system is a crucial foundation for efforts to enhance quality of care in the American health care system, and the legislation introduced by Senator Enzi and Senator Baucus is a very positive step."

The current system works poorly for everyone. Patients with valid claims wait years for settlement. Doctors who did nothing wrong litigate for years with the risk of a ruinous verdict hanging over their heads. This unfairness leads to nearly universal distrust of justice, undermining candor and good judgment.

Common Good - with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - is working in collaboration with faculty members from the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law, and Yale Law School to perform outreach and consensus-building needed for state demonstration projects.

Copies of the bills and additional information on health courts are available on Common Good's web site at cgood.

Common Good is a nonpartisan legal reform coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to American law. Its board is composed of leaders in a wide range of fields: former government officials, including Howard Baker, Bill Bradley, Griffin Bell, Newt Gingrich, Eric Holder, George McGovern, Diane Ravitch, Alan Simpson, and Richard Thornburgh; current and former university presidents, including Tom Kean, George Rupp, and John Silber, and numerous other leaders in education, health care, law, business and public policy. The Chair of Common Good is Philip K. Howard, a lawyer and author of The Death of Common Sense and The Collapse of the Common Good.