New York Lawmakers Create New Fund For Birth Injury Victims

It’s been a long, hard, and sometimes confusing battle for medical malpractice reforms in New York – a battle that has often pitted health advocates against law makers, insurance companies against patients, and hospitals against the current malpractice laws. While lawmakers were not able to pass the $250,000 cap on non-economic medical malpractice awards (which many believes is unconstitutional), a new fund proposal would give hospitals some of the relief that they are asking for.

Although many new proposals related to medical malpractice were set aside during the budget battle, one new medical indemnity fund for cases involving neurologically impaired infants has survived initial cuts – a fund that lawmakers believe could save the hospital industry up to $75 million a year.

The birth injury fund would benefit children who are born with neurological problems in New York and who are covered by Medicaid. All eligible children who suffered a brain or nerve birth injury would have their medical costs covered.

How does this new fund help hospitals? Since about half of all babies born in Brooklyn and the Bronx are covered by Medicaid, and since about half of all medical malpractice claims involve birth injuries in New York, the plan could

Last year, New York hospitals spent about three percent of their revenue, about 1.6 billion, on medical malpractice lawsuits. At the same time, however, thousands of birth-related medical mistakes took place that affected both the lives of the mothers and infants involved.

While some support the new fund, others wonder whether hospitals should be focusing on preventing birth injuries in the first place rather than finding new ways not to pay out medical malpractice damages after the medical error takes place.