Associations representing Iowa’s legal and medical professions have found common ground with proposed legislation aimed at reducing medical error rates and their corresponding costs in Iowa.

How new legislation could curb medical errors A form of the Candor process has been used for more than a decade by the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, writes senior staff writer Joe Gardyasz. Find out how the new legislation could help Iowa significantly reduce its rate of medical errors and the legal and insurance costs associated with them. Read more

The measures, Senate Study Bill 1176 and House Study Bill 143, would provide greater opportunity for health care providers to acknowledge medical errors and offer compensation to patients while preserving the patient’s right to pursue a malpractice lawsuit, if necessary. From the doctors’ perspective, the most exciting aspect is that the model has proved effective in other states in reducing medical errors in the first place.

For the past year, the Iowa Medical Society and the Iowa Association for Justice have been working together on model legislation that would provide the framework for bringing the process, known as Communication and Optimal Resolution, or Candor, to Iowa.

Preventable medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the United States, and deaths from medical malpractice have increased by two to four times in the past 15 years, according to an issue brief by the Iowa Association for Justice. A 2013 study in the Journal for Patient Safety estimates that between 210,000 and 440,000 Americans die annually from preventable medical errors.

On a related note, reporting requirements of medical errors varies on a state-by-state basis and is not required in Iowa, according to a blog post by David Lind, a health benefits benchmarking expert in Clive. Read his post here.