“The creation of specialized health courts is gaining new momentum on Capitol Hill. Earlier this month three prominent Members of Congress introduced an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, which includes the creation of health courts. While the future of that plan is unknown, the inclusion of health courts is significant, because health courts have previously been endorsed by President Obama. Health courts could thus emerge as a point of bipartisan agreement.
….”Included in the nine-page summary of its provisions is the following language: “States could also elect to establish a state Administrative Healthcare Tribunal, or ‘health court,’ presided over by a judge with healthcare expertise who can commission experts and make the same binding rulings that a state court can make.”
”The concept of health courts has been championed by Common Good—the nonpartisan government reform coalition—working in conjunction with experts at the Harvard School of Public Health. Under Common Good’s model, health courts would have judges dedicated full-time to resolving healthcare disputes. The judges would make written rulings to provide guidance on proper standards of care. These rulings would set precedents on which both patients and doctors could rely. To ensure consistency and fairness, each ruling could be appealed to a new Medical Appellate Court.
”Health courts are aimed not at stopping lawsuits but at restoring reliability to medical justice. Special courts have long been used in American justice in areas of complexity where reliability requires judges, who can make consistent rulings from case to case, rather than juries, which have no authority to set predictable precedents. In the early republic, America had special admiralty courts. Today, there are special courts for tax disputes, family law, workers’ comp, vaccine liability and a wide range of other specialized areas.”
