Report: Giving doctors immunity to serve Medicaid patients would cost Florida $69 million a year

TALLAHASSEE — As Gov.-elect Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature consider giving doctors immunity from lawsuits in return for treating Medicaid patients, a new report warns that such an arrangement could cost taxpayers at least $69 million a year.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who lost to Scott in November, commissioned the actuarial report last month after lawmakers indicated they are considering extending the state cap on legal liability, known as sovereign immunity, to Medicaid providers.

The report concludes that if legislators give state immunity to doctors and hospitals, "the state basically takes the place of a doctor who commits a negligent act." When a patient sues, taxpayers would pick up the tab of any medical malpractice claim up to $300,000. The cost of defending and investigating an estimated 551 claims a year would be $69 million a year, the report says.

Florida legislators passed a resolution in November indicating that, during the 2011 session, they will enact reforms that "establish a more fair and predictable civil justice system and reduce the disincentive for serving Medicaid participants." Translation: offer doctors immunity from lawsuits in return for accepting lower payments for treating the growing Medicaid population.

Sink's report may be a parting shot at the Republican-controlled Legislature as she prepares to leave office Jan. 4. Sink's campaign for governor was heavily backed by state trial lawyers, while Scott won the support of the liability-averse Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Medical Association.

Sink questions the assumption that doctors will be more willing to accept patients if they are shielded from malpractice claims. "No research has been done that supports that rationale," the report states, and notes that Florida would be the first state in the country to offer that protection.

But Alan Levine, who headed Scott's Medicaid policy transition team, is urging Scott to shield doctors from liability by capping the damages against them, not by giving them sovereign immunity that would cost tax dollars.

"She's got the right answer, but she's asking the wrong question," Levine said of Sink's report.