Several hundred physicians rallied at the Capitol yesterday for malpractice reform
“Dr. Steven Fletcher, a general and vascular surgeon at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J., said lawsuit reform would reduce the amount of defensive medicine he performs.
About 70 percent of the blood-clot checks he conducts are not are not medically necessary, but ‘we have to do them just in case,’ Dr. Fletcher said.
Defensive medicine, including medical tests and procedures performed mainly to protect a doctor from a lawsuit, costs an estimated $60 billion annually, Department of Health and Human Services data show.”
