Rules of Engagement
By David Sousa, Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel, Medical Mutual Insurance

NOTE: David Sousa will be one of our speakers at the 2004 NCMGM Fall Conference.  David will be presenting "Tort Reform" on Friday, September 24th.

There is a battle to be fought and won in the North Carolina Legislature over meaningful Tort Reform.  Physicians, however, have been historically reluctant, unavailable and unwilling to engage in the political process -- some might say "missing in action".  If there is one lesson to be learned in fighting the Tort Reform battle, it is that there is a defined set of rules which determine success and failure.  Those who know the rules, who accept that they are a way of life in politics and, who use them to their advantage, succeed.  Those who do not, fail.  Personal injury lawyers have engaged and have succeeded.  Physicians have not and have failed.  In the Tort Reform battle, personal injury attorneys are the enemy.  Physicians must decide whether they will engage themselves against the enemy in the fight to hold their malpractice insurance premiums in check.

What is at stake is more than escalating overhead for physicians.  Their personal assets and those of the practice are at risk.  Most importantly, access to quality and affordable healthcare for 8.5 million North Carolinians is at stake.  There is a clear strategy that can and will work to reform our civil justice system.  It will involve unprecedented political activism by physicians, their staffs and their patients.  Physicians must get to know all of their elected members of the legislature.  They must educate those members on the factual crisis that exists today in healthcare.  They must obtain the commitment of their elected officials to draft and adopt changes in our laws to save our healthcare delivery system.  And, most importantly, they must vote and get out the vote, and contribute financially to legislative leadership who will support healthcare. 

Simple?  Yes; but, when was the last time any of the physicians in your group could identify, by nam, their legislators?  When was the last time they contributed to a legislator who had the ability to control what, if any, changes in the law would occur relative to malpractice?  For most practices these answers are simple --"NEVER."  Change the old rules and play by the new ones.  Play to win by learning how to engage today.

David P. Sousa is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Medical Mutual Insurance Company of North Carolina, a position he has held for eight years.  Prior to that, for more than a decade, he defended physicians and their practice in medical malpractice cases throughout NC. 

Thank you to our 2004 Alliance Sponsors.  Click on the sponsors' name to visit their web site:

Platinum Level
Medical Mutual

Silver Level
RSM McGladrey

Bronze Level
Applied Medical Systems
Archivus
C&S Research Corporation
Digital Sales and Service
Dixon Hughes, PLLC
Gotham Images Inc.
Grant & Grant, LLC
Heathcare Enterprises
MAG Mutual Insurance
Marshall Erdman & Associates