White House offers $25M in grants to explore alternatives to costly medical malpractice suits
By APThursday, September 17, 2009
White House seeks ways to curb malpractice suits
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is announcing $25 million in grants to states and health care systems to launch a national experiment on alternatives to medical malpractice lawsuits.
The grants will be up to $3 million each for three years. They can be used to examine a broad range of ideas, including programs in which doctors and hospitals quickly acknowledge a mistake, offer an apology and restitution, and pledge to take corrective action.
The Health and Human Services Department will conduct a review of existing programs to determine what works and which ones deserve grant money.
Proposals to rein in the cost of medical malpractice have divided Washington for years. The announcement Thursday follows President Barack Obama’s pledge in his speech last week to take on the issue.
