START HERE
Why is this important?
- Georgia’s healthcare liability laws contribute to higher insurance costs and negatively impact providers’ ability to treat patients.
- Ensuring access to care is essential to keeping Georgians healthy.
- Georgia is dealing with a healthcare worker shortage, making it hard for many to access the care they need to maintain wellness and get treatment when they are injured or sick.
- Part of solving the shortage crisis is ensuring that doctors and healthcare providers want to practice in Georgia.
- Georgia's healthcare liability laws make Georgia an unattractive state for providers to practice in, and doctors have become reluctant to practice in our state because of the current landscape.
- We want clinicians to feel safe practicing here and be able to afford their insurance premiums.
- Georgia's healthcare liability laws encourage extremely high jury awards.
- We support a fair outcome for all parties so patients get the support they need and clinicians feel safe practicing in Georgia.
GHA supports efforts to modernize Georgia's healthcare liability laws to reduce unnecessary litigation costs to businesses, preserve access to care for Georgia citizens in need of high-risk services, and protect the healthcare community's ability to provide high-quality care to all, regardless of ability to pay. Georgia's healthcare liability laws have incentivized lawsuits in cases where mediation may have been a viable option. Extremely high jury awards have led to increased cost of care for all Georgia's patients, and GHA supports efforts to improve Georgia's healthcare liability statute by addressing "phantom damages" and "anchoring" practices, prohibiting venue shopping, and other considerations that protect patients' rights.
Thank you
We thank Gov. Brian Kemp for bringing necessary attention to this issue and for the opportunity to be part of the discussion, along with several of our member hospital leaders. Thank you to Atrium Health Navicent President and CEO Delvecchio Finley, Stephens County Hospital CEO Van Loskoski, Liberty Regional Medical Center CFO Derek Rozier, and Phoebe Putney Health System President and CEO Scott Steiner for participating in a roundtable moderated by GHA President and CEO Caylee Noggle. WATCH THE ROUNDTABLE.