{"id":89611,"date":"2017-06-29T07:29:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T12:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=89611"},"modified":"2017-06-29T07:29:17","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T12:29:17","slug":"latta-votes-for-litigation-reform-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/06\/29\/latta-votes-for-litigation-reform-measure\/","title":{"rendered":"Latta votes for litigation reform measure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0—\u00a0<\/strong>U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues in passing needed litigation reforms that would save $50 billion over the next decade and lower health care costs.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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Rep. Bob Latta<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

H.R. 1215<\/a>, the Protecting Access to Care Act, would provide flexible legal reforms to be used at the discretion of the states. The bill caps noneconomic damages in a health care lawsuit to $250,000 and also limits contingency fees that lawyers can charge. H.R. 1215\u00a0would\u00a0only be applicable to health care provided by federal programs, or\u00a0health care that incorporates federal subsidies or tax benefits.<\/p>\n

The legislation does not impose any caps for economic losses, which can include medical costs, lost wages, future lost wages, and\u00a0rehabilitation\u00a0costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone agrees that\u00a0victims of medical malpractice deserve to be fully compensated for their damages,\u201d\u00a0said Latta.\u00a0\u201cThe problem arises when frivolous\u00a0and excessive lawsuits are filed\u00a0for the benefit of attorneys, not those who have been wronged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese lawsuits drive up the cost of health care for everyone as doctors are forced to spend their time practicing defensive\u00a0medicine\u00a0to guard against litigation, instead of doing what is best for their patients,\u201d Latta added. \u201cUnneeded tests and procedures means higher costs for patients and the health care system overall and is a drain on resources.\u00a0Passing this legislation\u00a0—\u00a0which has been extremely\u00a0successful at the state level\u00a0—\u00a0will save $50 billion, reduce health care costs, and continue to protect patients from medical malpractice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaningful litigation reform is part of the \u201cphase 3\u201d portion of health care reform. Phase 1 being the passage of the American Health Care Act and phase 2 being actions taken by the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n

Along with medical litigation reform, the U.S. House of Representatives has\u00a0passed legislation<\/a>\u00a0to allow small businesses to pool together to purchase insurance and legislation to remove anti-trust exemptions for insurers to promote\u00a0competitiveness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted information WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0—\u00a0U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues in passing needed litigation reforms that would save $50 billion over the next decade and lower health care costs. H.R. 1215, the Protecting Access to Care Act, would provide flexible legal reforms to be used at the discretion of the states. The bill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-20 04:57:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}