FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark
Hendrickson, Public Relations Manager
(732) 205-1449
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2003
NJ Neuroscience Institute Physician Meets with Bush
on Medical Liability Reform
Edison, NJ — On Thursday, January 16, 2003, President Bush called a press conference at the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA to bring attention to the nation's need for medical liability reform. Gregory Przybylski, M.D., professor and director of Neurosurgery at the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center in Edison, NJ, was one of six physicians nationwide asked to participate in a roundtable discussion to provide insight into the medical professional liability crisis facing many states in the country.
The problem has reached critical levels. Many physicians have stopped taking new patients, begun curtailing certain types of work, are opting for leaving the state where they practice for another with lower malpractice insurance costs, or are even retiring from practice altogether. As a result, patients are losing access to their physicians and in some cases to local, appropriate medical care.
"For several years now, there has been a growing professional liability crisis that state legislators claim is a state problem; yet none of the states that have the problem have come up with a solution," commented Przybylski. “President Bush and the White House have stepped in and acknowledged that this is a national problem that requires a national solution.”
Bush specifically cited how Przybylski has been impacted. The president noted that the cost of liability insurance influenced the doctor’s move from Pennsylvania to Illinois and later to New Jersey. During the roundtable, Przybylski described how the crisis prevented him from doing what he was trained to do and how it impacted his patients. One patient with significant medical problems was unable to find the medical help he needed in Pennsylvania after Przybylski left. The patient eventually drove to Illinois to be treated by Przybylski. Said Bush, "That says a lot about Greg. It says a lot about his patients. And unfortunately it says something bad about the healthcare system, that liability costs are such that you can't get the kind of care you need in Pennsylvania."
Bush continued, "Something's wrong with the system. And a broken system like that, first and foremost, hurts the patients and the people of America."
Bush further explained how individual state concerns suggests a national crisis. "These costs, due to a broken litigation system, are also borne by the taxpayer, as the Federal government also pays for health care delivered directly to members of the armed forces, veterans, and patients served by the Indian Health Service. These costs are also borne by the Medicare and Medicaid programs."
To begin to the process of solving the problem, Bush recommended state and national level reform, a national adoption of medical liability standards, and improvements in health care quality and patient safety.
Dr. Przybylski spoke previously on the topic at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons annual meeting in September of 2002. Dr. Przybylski, a Professor of Neuroscience at Seton Hall University has been the Director of Neurosurgery at the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center since joining it in the fall of 2002. He is also a member of the AMA Relative-Value Update Committee, which meets three times each year to recommend physician work values for new and revised physician services to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
NJNI is a comprehensive facility designed exclusively for the diagnosis, treatment, and research of complex neurological disorders in adults and children. For more information on the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, call 732-321-7950 or visit the facility online at www.njneuro.org.