Bill 112 did not pass the voting file today. The substitution bill, known as the Medical Malpractice Pre-Screening Act, didn’t carry enough votes to be reconsidered by lawmakers.
Only 6 out of the 15 lawmakers in the Legislature voted to reconsider the Medical Malpractice Pre-Screening Act — a substitution of bill 112 which was initially known as the Medical Malpractice Mandatory Arbitration Act.
The bill was met with controversy from the medical community. What this substitution bill aims to do, according to Speaker Terlaje, is give patients, especially those of lower income, a better chance of settling their claims against medical professionals.
Currently, the law mandates patients to undergo arbitration before taking up their cases in court.
Speaker Therese Terlaje said, “Amended and substituted Bill 112 addresses several concerns by the medical community and that of patients and their families who are unable to access the current process mandated by law, because of cost barriers.”
Representatives from the island’s medical community authored a press release in response to Bill 112 as a whole. They say the original version of the bill made it “open season against practitioners.”
They fear that the bill, both original and revised, would allow “frivolous claims” to be filed against them.
However, according to Terlaje, it’s the contrary. She says the pre-screening process outlined in the substituted version of the bill should actually deter trial. In fact, Terlaje says arbitration is still an option, “This bill doesn’t redefine malpractice or remove the protection for doctors of a pre-trial screening process. Arbitration is still an option.”
Despite the apparent accommodations to the medical community’s concerns while upholding the goal of the bill, the legislation was not passed.
Shortly before the vote was made, Speaker Terlaje closed out her testimony about the bill, “We have to be the voice for those who are very intimidated at this point to speak. There’s been threats of cancelling their care. There’s been actual cancellations of care. Those things are real. But I don’t think they should deter us in our efforts to bring some timely justice to the system.”
Contact Devin Eligio | E-mail: devin@spbguam.com | Phone: 671-477-0790
