State lawmakers are contemplating resurrecting an idea left for dead weeks ago – overhauling Indiana’s medical malpractice system.
Different sides in the medical malpractice issue, hospitals, doctors, trial lawyers and the insurance industry, worked on a solution for months.
But Senator Brent Steele, who helped lead those discussions, announced earlier this session the sides couldn’t reach an agreement.
Yet lawmakers on Monday will revisit the issue in an attempt to shore up concerns about the system’s constitutionality, since the medical malpractice cap hasn’t been raised since 1999.
House Speaker Brian Bosma says this kind of last-minute maneuvering isn’t his first choice.
“But this is so very important to Hoosier patients and citizens that it’s something that we have to have an open dialogue about, even if it’s at the last minute,” he says.
Senate Republican Leader David Long echoes Bosma’s comments, but says the issue is a “hard sell.”
Lawmakers have just two weeks left this session to find the answer.
