Despite Previous Vetoes, Revised Wrongful Death Liability Expansion Legislation Again Moving Through Legislature
Physicians must again contact their legislators Reducing Medical Liability Costs (p2a.co) to oppose legislation (A.9232-B/S.8485-B) that would significantly expand liability against physicians and hospitals in wrongful death lawsuits. The bill has advanced to the floor of the Senate and the Assembly Rules Committee, where it could be reported out to the floor and passed at any time.
The latest version does not lessen the material adverse impact of the two earlier versions that were vetoed by Governor Hochul. Specifically, it differs from the earlier vetoed versions by reducing the retroactive applicability as well as the number of individuals that can bring these actions. However, it does not change the fundamental nature of the new types of damages that would be awardable through this legislation, which essentially was the basis for the 2022 actuarial study that concluded that this bill could produce a 40-45% increase in medical liability premiums. MSSNY has joined with 17 specialty societies in a letter S8485-A.9232-A-joint-letter.pdf (mssny.org) to the entire Legislature urging comprehensive liability reform instead of one-sided proposals such as this that would exacerbate already challenging patient access to care issues. This letter was the subject of a Politico article this week discussing this issue.
New York’s liability costs far exceed any other state in the country. Increasing these costs by any amount, let alone the potential 40% increase that actuaries have predicted when analyzing similar legislation, will exacerbate existing patient access to care challenges in our healthcare system. Governor Hochul has twice vetoed legislation that would have expanded the types of damages awardable in wrongful death actions. Her veto message appropriately highlighted the “significant unintended consequences” of this proposal, including the impact to our community healthcare infrastructure because of the likely huge increase in liability costs it would face through these expanded liability awards.
Please urge your legislators to work for the enactment of comprehensive legislation to bring down these untenable costs instead of increasing them and exacerbating existing patient access to care issues.
