A single death resulting from the lack of available physicians is one too many in the view of the Pennsylvania-based Politically Active Physicians Association (PAPA). PAPA has investigated nearly a dozen such tragic deaths in Pennsylvania, and New Jersey –- all the result of critical medical services that were unavailable to meet the immediate needs of injured children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable Americans.

The reason for the failure: rampant lawsuit abuse that has forced doctors to move away or close their practices. Hospitals and critical care facilities, particularly those providing emergency services or medical specialties like neurology, obstetrics, surgery, and endocrinology, are likewise closing shop.

The self-created failure, fed by a personal injury lawyer-friendly state government in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, has reached crisis proportions. According to PAPA, more than 2,000 Pennsylvania physicians have left the state, curtailed their practices, or taken early retirement due to unaffordable medical liability insurance rates. The American Medical Association (AMA) has classified Pennsylvania as one of 21 states in malpractice crisis. Consider that the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) has called for a minimum of 185 neurosurgeons – and a more reasonable number of 218 neurosurgeons – to serve Pennsylvania’s population of 12 million. Right now, the Commonwealth has approximately 160 neurosurgeons, with no promise of increasing that number on the horizon.

In fact, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, zero percent of Pennsylvania-trained neurological residents plan to practice in the Commonwealth. Only 8 percent of physicians trained in Pennsylvania’s medical colleges, among the finest in the nation, plan to stay in-state (the national state-retention average is nearly 50 percent).

Pennsylvania: "Ground Zero for the Battle"

Dr. James Tayoun

PAPA Founding Member, Dr. James Tayoun (pictured left), organized PAPA in 2002 around the principle that “patients are losing access to quality health care, and physicians have become sitting ducks for lawsuits – and Pennsylvania is ‘ground-zero’ for the battle.”

“PAPA has added 6,000 members in our region, and we’re expanding to states across the nation as doctors begin to understand that not only are patients’ lives at risk, but also that lawsuit abuse is causing our industry to fail, with the unacceptable ripple effect that is shattering communities,” said Tayoun. “This is one of the ultimate quality-of-life issues.”

Since May 2002, when the Pennsylvania legislature passed Act 13 (requiring doctors to self-report when sued for medical malpractice), nearly 10,000 lawsuits have been filed against the Commonwealth’s physicians. This represents nearly one-half of Pennsylvania’s 25,000 practicing physicians. The Commonwealth’s Medical Board has determined that only 73 of those cases warranted further action. “Clearly, we’re dealing with a frivolous lawsuit environment, and it’s taking a critical toll on health care access,” Tayoun said.

PAPA: Public Outrage through Public Outreach

PAPA’s mission is simple. With limited financial resources, operating at times on month-to-month grants, PAPA is effectively communicating the crisis and its implications to the grassroots. Executing sharply drawn programs like “Public Outrage Through Public Outreach,” the organization is telling the real-life stories of Americans who lost their lives as a direct result of lack of access to medical services. “These are deaths that could have been avoided – children, pregnant women and their babies, individuals with diabetes and cancer – but for the lawsuit frenzy and its effects on physicians and those who work in and around the medical industry.”

And the financial impact on communities is devastating, too. PAPA points out that, on average, every physician creates at least three and a half support jobs that depend on a physician's work. Upcoming economic studies will further demonstrate that the loss of medical practices, hospitals, and medical facilities utterly decimates the economic vitality of communities.

“Medicine-focused industries, which are usually clustered around larger facilities, generate jobs and revenue that support large portions of our communities,” said Tayoun. “When those facilities shut down, business dries up. Retail, food, services, and a host of businesses lose a primary consumer base. Thanks to personal injury lawyers who game the legal system, entire communities whither and die.”

PAPA gained important momentum in its fight to educate the public about the medical crisis when, in 2005, the Pennsylvania legislature quietly voted itself a huge pay raise, leading to unprecedented voter outrage. Despite a flip-flop on the issue by Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, a lawyer who has received overwhelming political contributions from the trial bar, voters were energized to punish lawmakers for the pay raise debacle. In 2006, a large number of incumbent state lawmakers, including a state Senate President Pro Tempore, who had been a tort reform obstructionist, were ousted in the primaries. The 2006 general election provided further opportunity for Pennsylvania voters to shake up the political establishment.

“PAPA read the handwriting on the wall,” said Tayoun. “There is hope that things can change. That’s why we’re expanding our efforts to tell these important real-life stories – we believe voters will demand reform once they understand the consequences of a legal system run amok.”

PAPA’s aggressive media outreach, combined with zealous efforts to investigate, verify, and publicize the stories of unwarranted deaths, has caught the attention of physicians and medical professionals in other states. “We’re now working with doctors and related industries in states like New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, with an eye toward a national network of PAPA chapters in the next three years,” said Tayoun.

PAPA and AJP: Building Success through Strategic Partnership

PAPA points out that partnering with the American Justice Partnership (AJP) has opened doors to the business and corporate community previously unavailable to them. “We’ve been impressed that the AJP, with its resource partnerships in a host of business, corporate, and advocacy arenas, has embraced our fight for health care access through legal reform.”

PAPA’s ambitious agenda requires important financial support. “We’re reaching out to our new partners in the business community with the message that ‘we are businesses, too, and we share your desire for substantive legal reform.’” Tayoun added.

“Physicians have been taken out of operating rooms and dragged into courtrooms,” Tayoun tells audiences. “The result is a life-threatening environment for our communities.” It’s no wonder that PAPA’s web site, filled with on-point information, is www.fightingdocs.com. Physicians are starting to fight back and, according to PAPA, it’s a fight that’s long overdue.

Click Here to Listen to PAPA's Ken Kilpatrick

featured on "Tort Crises and Soup Sandwiches"

(iTunes required)

Click Here to Listen to Center for Individual Freedom's

Interview with PAPA's Ken Kilpatrick

Keep watch for an exciting Partner Spotlight interview with PAPA's Dr. James Tayoun!