Bill to allow more foreign-born doctors and allow for tort reform

Bill moving through Legislature quickly

Web posted Sunday, March 20, 2005

Bill seeks to relax rules, ease doctor shortage

Worried about shortages of physicians and other health care specialists, Alaska medical providers are pushing a bill in the Legislature that would ease the state's strict restrictions on doctors trained in foreign medical schools.

The scarcity of physicians is also being used to push another, more controversial proposal in Juneau - medical tort reform.

Jim Jordan, executive director of the Alaska State Medical Association, told the Senate Labor and Commerce committee in hearings earlier this month that his association estimates Alaska needs about 470 more doctors to be at the national average of the ratio practicing physicians to population.

House Bill 102, sponsored by Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, would give the state medical board flexibility to waive Alaska's current two-year residency requirement for doctors trained outside the United States.

The bill is moving fast in the Legislature. It passed the House Feb. 24 and as of March 16 it was in the Senate.

Rick Urion, director of the state Division of Occupational Licensing, said he strongly supports HB 102.

"Our biggest problem is that the current law gives no discretion to the board," in waiving requirements in selected cases. Urion said he would support similar flexibility for other occupational licensing boards.

"We could solve a lot of problems," in recruiting skilled professionals if boards had flexibility, Urion said.

Dr. George Stewart, an Anchorage physician, told the committee that his clinic, which specializes in critical care medicine, has shortages in specialties like diabetes and neurology. Stewart has been trying to recruit another partner for the clinic for six years and has found only two candidates who were interested. One was trained in Venezuela and the other in the United Kingdom.

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Physicians also lined up to support Senate Bill 67, which would limit "non-economic" damages in medical malpractice lawsuits.

The bill, now in the Senate Judiciary Committee, would limit non-economic, or pain and suffering damages, to $350,000 on malpractice awards. It would not affect awards for economic damages, meaning loss of income, or awards for attorneys' fees and costs.

Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, is the sponsor of SB 67. Proponents of the bill argue it would help lower high costs of malpractice insurance for medical providers and would encourage insurance companies to even offer the coverage.

There is sharp opposition from trial attorneys and the AARP, however. A similar bill failed last year.

Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, said there's no assurance that passage of the legislation would actually result in lower costs of malpractice insurance. Ellis, who is the minority leader in the Senate, said he agrees with the AARP that there should be a greater focus within the health community on error reduction in medical practices.

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Source: Alaska Journal of Commerce