NC Medical Board Makes Malpractice Payments Available on Web

The North Carolina Medical Board is working out the details of its decision to post medical malpractice information on its website. State legislature made the decision to post this information in October of 2007, and in recent months there has been great debate over the specific details that the Medical Board will post. While many citizens are advocating for all malpractice suits in the past seven years to be posted, the Board has decided to only post malpractice payments that occurred after October 2007, and then only those that are over twenty five thousand dollars- a threshold amount that can trigger an increase in malpractice insurance premiums for doctors. The timeframe for posting malpractice awards has been the biggest issue in this decision, with many doctors arguing that malpractice payments are often made with secrecy clauses, and that posting these payments on the web will violate them. The majority of doctors wish for a minimal amount of information to be posted for fear that it may be misinterpreted, but a poll recently showed that eighty one percent of the public support full disclosure of these payments. Over twenty states in the U.S. already post medical malpractice payments on the internet, and North Carolina will begin making this information available in the fall of 2009.