Medical Malpractice: Maine's Use of Practice Guidelines to Reduce Costs
(Letter Report, 10/25/93, GAO/HRD-94-8).

As part of a larger goal of reducing health care costs and improving
medical care, Maine is testing an innovative medical malpractice reform
initiative.  Maine has incorporated into state law 20 practice
guidelines for four specialties: anesthesiology, emergency medicine,
obstetrics and gynecology, and radiology.  This effort seeks to resolve
malpractice claims by eliminating the need to litigate to establish the
standard of care.  Maine officials expect that the practice guidelines
will decrease doctors' motivation to do medically unnecessary tests and
will lower health care costs.  Maine was able to incorporate the
practice guidelines into law by (1) gaining broad involvement of those
affected by the guidelines, (2) ensuring that those developing and
choosing the guidelines were accountable to the public, and (3)
protecting the physicians who use the guidelines in their practice.
Specifically, the project was developed and is overseen by health care
providers, payers, and consumers.  To persuade Maine's doctors to
participate in the project once it was developed, the project provides
physicians complying with the guidelines a defense in future malpractice
lawsuits.  With these components, the majority of eligible doctors opted
to participate in the project.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  HRD-94-8
     TITLE:  Medical Malpractice: Maine's Use of Practice Guidelines to 
             Reduce Costs
      DATE:  10/25/93
   SUBJECT:  Malpractice (medical)
             Health care cost control
             Health care services
             Physicians
             State-administered programs
             Health care programs
             Liability (legal)
             Program evaluation
             Quality assurance
             Risk management
IDENTIFIER:  Maine
             Maine Medical Liability Demonstration Project
             National Health Care Reform Initiative
             Clinton Health Care Plan
             Health Security Act
             
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