DES MOINES, Iowa — There are proposals in both the Iowa Senate and House that aim to cap non-economic medical malpractice damages at $1 million.
It's a push Iowans also heard from Gov. Kim Reynolds in her 2023 Condition of the State address, as she outlined tort reform objectives.
Supporters of the measure believe it protects hospitals from being shut down as well as keep and attract more doctors to Iowa.
But Joy Trueblood, a retired doctor, feels the measure misses the mark on reforming these large payouts.
While working as a pathologist at Iowa Clinic, she says some type of mixup in the lab resulted in a patient being misdiagnosed with prostate cancer. As a result, the patient decided to have his prostate removed.
"The way that it started was the Iowa Clinic attorney came to me and said, basically, we've admitted liability here," Trueblood said. "There was a mistake made at the clinic. So we've already admitted liability."
The man's attorney, Randy Shanks, said the mixup and resulting surgery cost the man his quality of life. Leaving him permanently incontinent and in diapers.
"He can't make love to his wife, he has no feeling at all in his penis. And this is the way it's going to be the rest of his life, all because of what happened," he said.
Shanks says negotiations with MMIC, the insurance company representing Trueblood and the Iowa Clinic, proved to be a dead end for this client.
"She said this case only has a value of $350,000," said Shanks. "And that's all a jury in Iowa would ever give you. That's all the jury in Iowa will value it. And at that point, I said, well, then we have no choice."
In those negotiations, Trueblood says at one point the two sides were close, but attorneys for the patient wanted more than what MMIC would offer.
"So I actually offered to pay the difference," said Trueblood. "And the insurance company refused to let me do that. So we went into trial and it wound up with a multimillion-dollar settlement. That was way over the policy limits for myself and the clinic."
Trueblood believes malpractice caps aren't the answer to avoiding major payouts. She believes the change needs to happen with the insurance companies.
"I just think that when insurance companies profits are going up, and they're not willing to make a decent offer to the patient, then you're going to have these lawsuits that are going to result in these," Trueblood said. "It's traumatic for the patient. I feel sorry for them to have to go through that."