Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:Introduction to Health Care and Public Health in the U.S.
Unit:Regulating Health Care
Lecture:Legal Aspects of Medicine
Slide content:Tort Law Reform - 2 Periodic payment Joint-and-several liability reform More than one defendant - limits amount that can be recovered from each Caps on non-economic damages Limit payments for pain and suffering 18
Slide notes:Periodic payment allows insurers to pay damage awards in smaller periodic payments, rather than in one lump sum. Joint-and-several liability reform means that if there is more than one defendant, the patient cannot recover the whole amount from any one of them. Rather, each defendant is responsible for only a limited amount of the total damages. Non-economic damages are those that cannot easily be expressed in dollar amounts, such as pain and suffering. A cap on these damages limits either the amount of money that the patient can receive or the amount each defendant has to pay. 18