George Voinovich: “I will summarize quickly some of the conclusions. It says: The GAO August report fails to accurately reflect the…”

“I will summarize quickly some of the conclusions. It says: The GAO August report fails to accurately reflect the severity of the current crisis. Numerous changes in the GAO methodology would strengthen the basic findings. Among the data sources, measures, analytical methods that could be improved: Examine all crisis States. To date, the AMA, in conjunction with its federation of State medical associations, has identified 19 States that have a medical liability crisis. They also suggest recognizing the increased impact on rural areas, which GAO did not do; approximately measure physician mobility. Physician accounts were based on State licensure data which do not accurately reflect the number of physicians practicing in a given location. Actual physician practice location information must be used instead. They should accurately count physicians by specialties and local markets and use multi-payor data to accurately measure access to health care services that Medicare data alone do not capture. I can tell you I have not completely read the GAO report, but I have read portions of it. Its connection to reality in my State is not there. I have talked to David Walker about it. I have talked to the people who did the report and encouraged them to look at some of the suggestions the AMA made and perhaps do another study that would accurately reflect what is really going on today in this country in terms of medical malpractice increases and what it is doing to access to health care.”