Colorado Senate Bill clears first hurdle in Med Mal cap increase
Colorado Senate Bill 164 has cleared its first hurdle. The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee has approved the bill which will now head to the Senate floor for debate. SB164 calls for an increase from $300,000 in non-economic damages to $450,000 to account for inflation in victims of medical malpractice. Additionally, impairment and disfigurement would not be subject to the cap as it had been previously. Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, sponsored the bill, which he called moderate and reasonable. The changes are in line with the 1988 Health Care Availability Act, which limited the amount doctors pay if found guilty of malpractice. Under that law, impairment and disfigurement weren’t considered non-economic damages, but a law passed in 2003 changed that. Doctors and lawyers who testified predictably disagreed on the outcome. Groff said he expects doctors and their lobbyists will continue to fight the bill once the full Senate takes up the debate. They are already using “fear, threats and distortion” to fight something that would affect “about a handful of . . . cases every year that dramatically alters (someone’s) quality of life,” he said. In 2006, 13 malpractice cases went to trial in Colorado. Of the six cases won by the plaintiffs, five exceeded the $1 million cap.
