House, Senate panels OK bills to revamp Florida's medical malpractice laws
A bill that would revamp the state's wrongful death statutes to allow more lawsuits stemming from medical malpractice is moving through the committee process in the Florida Legislature.
The House Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve HB 6017. The vote followed a Tuesday evening 9-2 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve SB 734.
The legislation heads to the House Judiciary Committee next but has no additional committee references in that chamber, while the Senate version will head to the Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services and the Rules Committee.
When it comes to wrongful deaths stemming from medical malpractice claims, parents of single, childless, adult children cannot sue for noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering. Additionally, adults (defined as 25 or older) cannot pursue wrongful death claims for parents who die from medical malpractice.
This is in no way a knock against the medical profession or anyone in it, because Florida has some of the best health care providers and institutions in the country and beyond.
– Sen. Clay Yarborough
The Legislature adopted the ban during the 1990s as lawmakers wrestled with rising malpractice premiums. There has been a concerted effort in recent years, though, to eliminate the ban, and members of Senate Judiciary heard from people on both sides of the issue Tuesday, the first day of the annual 60-day legislative session.
Senate sponsor Clay Yarborough of Jacksonville, who chairs the committee, said existing law is 'unjust and prevent[s] accountability.'
'This is in no way a knock against the medical profession or anyone in it, because Florida has some of the best health care providers and institutions in the country and beyond. I don't have a number to quote, but I will venture to say we likely have a low, single-digit percentage of those in Florida's health care community that have issues with malpractice or negligence,' Yarborough said.
'While we all understand no amount of money can bring back a loved one, to solely argue from a monetary or economic perspective would be misplaced, because no individual and no institution is above accountability, which is exactly what this bill is about.'
Opponents argued that changing the law would drive up costs of health care and incentivize physicians to leave the state, although recent research shows a number of other reasons why physicians are leaving practices, including family demands and inadequate support staff.
Shelly Knick is a claims adjuster for the Physicians Insurance company, which covers doctors and hospitals. She testified that the change would mean an additional 500 wrongful death lawsuits annually, an estimate she called conservative.
'Each [hospital] will face an additional one to two wrongful death cases annually,' Knicks testified.
'Non-economic damages like pain and suffering are often the largest portion of settlements which exponentially increase the cost. But, importantly, understand that most medical malpractice lawsuits do not involve negligence. They result from unfortunate medical outcomes, not bad medicine. '
Her remarks seemed to belie some of the stories supporters of the bill shared during their testimony in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sara Franqui shared the story of her 28-year-old daughter, Sadie Dela Cruz, who died in 2021. Her daughter suffered what's called an ovarian torsion, which occurs when an ovary twists on its supporting ligaments and cuts off blood flow. She said her daughter went to several physicians about her pain but that they misdiagnosed her condition.
When the pain became unmanageable, she testified, her daughter went to the emergency room at the hospital where she had worked for seven years. But her daughter, who had developed sepsis, was misdiagnosed by a 'brand new doctor and a travelling nurse that was new.'
'All she needed was a septic test. She went to various doctors and when she finally went to the hospital and she thought she had hope to live they let her die,' Franqui told the House Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee.
Franqui, who also testified during the Senate hearing, said she feels she's been 'chosen' to take her experience and try to change the law.
'And now I come to you because I feel that we have been chosen,' she told senators. 'We have been chosen as messengers to the people and to our representatives.'
Navy veteran Keith Davis died from a blood clot after being admitted to a hospital for knee pain. His daughter, Sabrina Davis, filed a complaint against the doctor with the Department of Health. She testified that the Florida Board of Medicine, charged with disciplining physicians, found that the doctor violated the standards of care and committed medical malpractice.
The BOM hit the doctor with a $7,500 fine and made him take a continuing education course on blood clots, Davis said,
'I still ask myself today how my dad can serve in the Navy on a ballistic missile nuclear submarine and travel the depths of the ocean but when he goes into a hospital for knee pain not make it out alive.'
Florida has had no caps on pain and suffering in medical malpractice lawsuits since 2014, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. But the makeup of the Florida Supreme court has changed since then, with the majority of the justices appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The medical community is eager to put the rejuggled court to the test.
Yarborough filed similar legislation last year but agreed to put a cap of $500,000 per claimant for practitioners and $750,000 on 'non-practitioners' found liable, such as hospitals and health care facilities. The cap would drop to $150,000 for health care practitioners in emergency medical cases.
There are no caps in the 2025 legislation and at least one senator who voted to pass the Senate bill Tuesday explained his yes vote was conditional. Sen. Ed Hooper, chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said he had three conversations with Yarborough about the bill and promised to support the measure in Senate Judiciary.
'I want to help and work with you to make this as good as it can be made, but my commitment to you was that I will support the bill at this stop and I'm not going to change my mind today,' Hooper said.
Palm Beach County Medical Society President-elect Vicki Norton told the Florida Phoenix Wednesday that she started practicing emergency medicine in Florida in 2010 with the security of knowing there were limits on the amount a plaintiff could be awarded for pain and suffering had she been sued. The threat of lawsuits, she said, was one reason she left Philadelphia.
'I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I was scared to death I was going to make a mistake and then I was going to get sued for like millions of dollars.'
Norton, assistant medical director of the Boca Raton Regional Hospital emergency department, said she saw her medical malpractice insurance premiums increase following the 2014 ruling. Also, hospital call sheets started to have 'gaps in the schedule for high-risk specialties,' and that she once had to fly a patient from her hospital to UF Health Shands in Gainesville for emergency heart surgery.
'I had no surgeon on call,' she said. 'I had to call all around the state.'
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
2 hours ago
- Medscape
Thyroid Storm Deaths Rose With Covid-19, Other Risk Factors
Orlando, Fla — A surge in mortality due to thyroid storm occurred in the US during 2020-2021, likely partially, but not entirely, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new analysis of people hospitalized with thyrotoxicosis in the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) between 2016 and 2021 showed. However, 'the increased mortality observed was not solely attributable to COVID-19 infection. Critical comorbid conditions markedly heightened the risk of death,' study author Muhammad Sohaib Asghar, MD, a resident physician at AdventHealth, Sebring, Florida, told Medscape Medical News . 'This underscores the importance of early recognition and aggressive management of thyrotoxicosis, especially during healthcare system stressors such as pandemics,' said Asghar. The condition — an endocrine emergency of extreme hyperthyroidism — commonly occurs in people with Graves' thyrotoxicosis but is often precipitated by a secondary inciting factor such as infection or cardiac event, explained co-study author, Shehar Bano, MD, a resident physician at AdventHealth, Sebring, Florida, who presented the results at American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) Annual Meeting 2025. Racial and demographic factors appeared to play a role in the development of thyroid storm among those with thyrotoxicosis, with higher rates among ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status, Bano added. Given the high mortality risk in patients with thyrotoxicosis with severe systemic illness, Asghar noted, 'clinicians should prioritize early risk stratification and consider prompt escalation of care. Tailored treatment plans and closer monitoring of patients with high-risk features can potentially improve outcomes, particularly in resource-limited or high-stress clinical settings.' 'These findings highlight the need for a multidisciplinary approach and proactive management of comorbidities in this patient population,' he added. Thyrotoxicosis Trends: Many Risk Factors Identified The study population included individuals aged 18 years or older in the NIS who had ICD-10 codes for thyrotoxicosis (E.05) regardless of cause, excluding those with a concomitant diagnosis of thyroiditis. Of the 186,474 patients included in the analysis (mean age, 60.91 years; 73% women), 97.83% were discharged alive while 2.17% died in hospital. A total of 3800 patients with thyroid storm (2.04% of the study population) were identified. Patients with thyroid storm were significantly younger (mean age, 47 years vs 61 years), had greater lengths of hospital stay (7 days vs 5 days), and higher inflation-adjusted cost of stay ( P < .001). There was no gender predisposition in relation to thyroid storm ( P = .61), but those with it were more likely Black or Hispanic individuals ( P < .01), and to be on Medicaid or self-paying. They were also more likely to live in low socioeconomic ZIP codes ( P < .01) and the US South region ( P < .01), and to be admitted in Government non-federal hospitals ( P < .01). Those with thyroid storm were significantly more likely to have a long list of concurrent diagnoses, including coagulopathy, drug abuse, history of heart failure with systolic component instead of diastolic, mild liver disease, peripheral vascular disease, weight loss, sepsis, septic shock, cardiogenic shock, rheumatic heart disease, and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction ( P < .001 for all). The list also included atrial arrythmias, respiratory failure, invasive ventilation, tracheostomy, cardiac arrest, acute heart failure, pneumonia, use of mechanical circulatory support, supraventricular and ventricular tachycardia, mitral valve disease, chronic liver disease, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement, acute venous thromboembolism, and pericardial effusion/pericarditis ( P < .001, except for pneumonia where P = .001). Over the entire study period, age-adjusted mortality per 100,000 hospitalizations was 6825 among those with thyroid storm vs 3601 for those without, Bano reported. For those with thyroid storm, in-hospital mortality appeared to be rising even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a surge beginning in 2019. The percentages were 2.88% in 2016, 6.00% in 2017, 4.78% in 2018, 6.37% in 2019, 6.61% in 2020, and 7.58% in 2021 ( P for trend < .001). Among those without thyroid storm, in-hospital mortality stayed relatively steady until the pandemic, ranging from 1.78% to 1.82% between 2016 and 2019, then jumping to 2.48% in 2020 and 2.87% in 2021 ( P for trend < .001). Annual age-adjusted mortality rates per 100,000 hospitalizations were roughly similar between those with and without thyroid storm in 2019, 3442 and 3107, respectively. In 2020, those numbers rose to 7629 for those with thyroid storm vs 4754 for those without. In 2021, they were 12,859 and 4539, respectively. 'With future National Inpatient Sample data releases in 2023 and beyond, we should expect this mortality rate to be declining,' Asghar told Medscape Medical News . Impressive Sample Size Asked to comment, session moderator Sean Ho Yoon, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine at Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Long Island, New York, told Medscape Medical News , 'the study has a limitation because it is not randomized, case controlled, or even blinded. It is a retrospective study. So there's an inherent confounding.' But, Yoon added, those limitations were somewhat mitigated by the large sample size from NIS, which includes 86% of healthcare centers in the US. 'I was impressed by the fact that the sample size is really big. Thyrotoxicosis may be commonly seen, but thyroid storm is not,' he said. Having a 3800-patient sample size 'was actually impressive.' Regarding the socioeconomic differences, Yoon said, 'For clinicians, the challenge is the barriers for them to have access to healthcare because thyroid storm, especially, is preventable by just following routinely with doctors and taking the medication or definitive treatment for the hyperthyroidism.' Bano, Asghar, and Yoon have no disclosures.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: Tariffs Are Planned for Appliances Made With Steel
A law that expired last year was meant to compensate civilians sickened by the legacy of the nation's aboveground nuclear testing program, as well as uranium miners. Senate Republicans on Thursday included in their version of President Trump's domestic policy bill a provision that would revive and significantly expand a law for compensating victims of government-caused nuclear contamination who developed cancer and other serious illnesses. The measure, long championed by Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, would overhaul a law passed more than three decades ago with a narrow scope. It was meant to compensate civilians sickened by the legacy of the nation's aboveground nuclear testing program, a hallmark of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, and uranium miners who worked between 1942 and 1971. It paid out more than $2.6 billion in benefits to more than 55,000 claimants since its creation in 1990. The Senate passed bipartisan legislation last year to substantially broaden the scope of that law — called the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA — beyond Cold War-era victims to cover others who have been harmed by the aftereffects in the decades since. But after Republican leaders refused to allow it to come to a vote on the House floor, the law expired, dashing hopes of compensation for sickened civilians. Senate Republican leaders are now, at the behest of Mr. Hawley, giving the measure another shot at passage, including it in the Senate version of the domestic policy bill that they are hoping to pass in weeks. He is considered a key vote on the bill because he opposes several provisions floated by his party for cutting Medicaid. 'I think about, in the St. Louis area alone, how many folks I've talked to whose grandfathers or grandmothers were involved with the radiation project and whose families have subsequently had cancer in the family for generations,' Mr. Hawley said in an interview. 'And they're very proud of their service to the nation, but they would like to be thanked for that and be treated appropriately and not lied to anymore by their government.' The measure would revive the law and authorize its compensation fund to run for another two years. It would also expand eligibility to include civilians in the swaths of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona that were previously excluded from benefits coverage. And it would for the first time allow residents in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska — sites where workers processed uranium for the nation's nuclear program — who were exposed to nuclear contamination to be eligible for benefits. Mr. Hawley's involvement in the issue stems from St. Louis's history with the atomic bomb. Scientists first began churning out uranium for the Manhattan Project in 1942 at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works factory there. But over the next several decades, hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive waste stored in open steel drums were hauled and dumped across the city. The waste seeped into the city's soil, including on land that later became ball fields, and into Coldwater Creek, a tributary that snakes through the metropolitan area for 19 miles through backyards and public parks. Rare cancers, autoimmune diseases and other mysterious illnesses have since spread through the community. Lawmakers like Mr. Hawley have maintained that the government should help foot residents' health care bills. Asked whether the inclusion of the measure might encourage him to support his party's domestic policy bill despite his concerns about the legislation's Medicaid provisions, Mr. Hawley suggested that it could. 'This will really dramatically increase the availability of health care for people in my state,' he said. 'If you are a RECA claimant, if you are a nuclear radiation survivor, then you're going to get a lot of help with your medical bills here. So what this is going to mean, practically in Missouri, is a lot of people are going to get a lot more access to health care, which is really, really important.' Mr. Hawley continued: 'So, I still have concerns about Medicaid, and believe me, I'm talking about those on an almost hourly basis now with my leadership. But this is a big, big deal, and not just for my state. This is going to be a big deal for a lot of people, and it's going to help a lot of people get health care.'
Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Soon Your Orange Juice Will Have Even Less Real Orange In It
Bottled orange juice, a staple of all-American breakfast tables, has never been as natural as it seems. Orange juice was beloved in Florida and California at the turn of the 20th century, but it didn't travel well. In the 1930s, citrus farmers tried to freeze and can the juice to transport it further afield, but the process yielded a nearly undrinkable product. When the US government was searching for solutions to get more Vitamin C to soldiers during World War II, scientists discovered that removing water enabled OJ to be frozen and safely shipped. And thus, concentrate was born. The concentration process strips juice of its natural oils, so juice companies had to add flavor and fragrance back later, using oils and essences derived largely from peels. These scientific innovations brought OJ into more American homes and diners than ever before. They also laid the groundwork for the study and development of citrus flavors, now a nearly $5 billion market.
