Update: Sadly, Proposition 46 did not pass, but Consumer Watchdog and many others interested in protecting victims declare that the issue is not dead and will return. Stay tuned...
What was added almost as an afterthought may be one of the most relevant, albeit controversial, provisions of Proposition 46, which Californians will vote on November 4.
What was added almost as an afterthought may be one of the most relevant, albeit controversial, provisions of Proposition 46, which Californians will vote on November 4.
The hotly debated ballot measure has received much publicity
for its provision to raise the cap on pain and suffering damages in medical
malpractice cases from $250,000, a figure set in 1975 with The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA),
to $1.1 million. After 40 years, it’s time for a raise.
Prop 46 author Bob Pack also included provisions regarding
the mandatory use of the Controlled
Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), a
prescription drug database that only about eight percent of doctors currently
use. The system allows doctors to check a patient’s prescription history in
hopes of curbing potential “doctor-shoppers.”
To make the ballot measure more appealing to voters, Pack
also added a mandatory drug testing provision. Turns out, that addition is
likely the most important element to Prop 46.
The measure requires drug and alcohol testing for doctors.
Any positive tests are reported to the California Medical Board. The Board
would then suspend that doctor pending investigation and take disciplinary
action if the investigation indicated that the doctor was impaired while on
duty.
Civil rights advocates make a valid argument that random
drug testing invades the medical professional’s privacy rights. But if bus
drivers, truck drivers and firefighters have to be tested, why not doctors and
surgeons? A significant percent of the general population is predisposed to
addiction. An estimated ten percent of business executives struggle with
addiction. Doctors are not excluded from those figures. Drug testing could shed
the light on dangerous behavior that previously remained hidden from patients
and ignored by colleagues. (Addicts are masters at disguising their disease.)
Natasha Minsker, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Northern California, told East Bay Express that the
drug-testing program could yield positive results from legitimately prescribed
drugs or from marijuana used in a doctor’s off hours. However, Prop 46
advocates note that the California Medical Board could craft regulations to
make sure doctors are not penalized for legal prescriptions.
Would you want even the most highly trained surgeon to
perform an operation, making precise incisions, with an alcohol- or
opioid-induced hangover?
Medical professionals shouldn’t get a free pass.
Vote wisely.
