Medical malpractice awards capped under new state law

DES MOINES — Cash awards for pain, suffering and other non-economic complications from medical malpractice lawsuits will be capped under a new provision signed into law Thursday by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Those non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases are now capped at $2 million for cases in which a hospital is found to be at fault, and $1 million when the doctor is at fault.

The new law, which becomes effective immediately, does not cap jury awards for economic or punitive damages.

Reynolds, during a public bill-signing event Thursday in her formal office at the Iowa Capitol, said the non-economic medical malpractice caps were a long time coming. Her statement was met by a knowing murmur from the dozens of doctors and health care officials who had been invited to join the event.

Reynolds said the new law marks “an important day for health care access in our state.”

“We’re in a much better position to recruit and retain physicians in our communities, and really preserve access to care for rural Iowans,” Reynolds said. Proponents of the legislation said it was needed to help contain insurance costs for hospitals, and to help recruit and retain doctors.

Iowa had been among the 22 states without a cap on non-economic awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, according to a 2020 report from New York Law School’s Center for Justice and Democracy.

Of the states that share a border with Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri have caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. Minnesota and Illinois do not.

Of the roughly 160 average annual medical malpractice lawsuits that have been filed in Iowa since 2017, only 8 percent went to trial, according to analysis from the state’s nonpartisan legal and fiscal analysis division.

Representatives of the medical community have pointed in particular to two judgments from 2022 in Iowa: a $97.4 million award to a family whose newborn suffered brain damage when its head was crushed due to health care providers using improper procedures during delivery, and a $27 million award to a man whose case of bacterial meningitis was misdiagnosed as the flu.

“To recruit the best and brightest, to keep these providers in Iowa we need to have a stable practice environment,” said Kevin Kincaid, the CEO of Knoxville Hospital and Clinics, who was invited to speak at the bill-signing event. “This bill is a crucial step forward in helping Iowa to be a more attractive place to practice medicine, a place for folks to move their families, and to be a part of this great state. We believe this bill is a fair compromise in balancing the need for access to high quality care.”

The new law, in the form of House File 161, divided state lawmakers along unusual political lines. While mostly Republicans supported the bill — only one Democrat voted for it — it was opposed by a mixture of Democrats and the more socially conservative Republicans, who likened the proposal to placing a monetary value on an individual’s life.

Opponents of the proposal also noted that other states with medical malpractice caps also are struggling to find doctors. They said insurance reimbursement rates are a far more pressing issue.

The Republican state lawmaker who guided the bill through the legislative process in the Iowa House and supported its passage, Rep. Ann Meyer, of Fort Dodge, lost her 5-year-old son to what she described as a medical error.

“I was very angry at that time as well,” Meyer said during debate over the proposal. “No amount of money will bring Nick back, and I feel that loss every single day.”

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