The House Majority Policy Committee held a hearing Feb. 14 to present evidence that a proposed court rule change would create a health care crisis in Pennsylvania.

The state Supreme Court is weighing whether to abandon a rule adopted in 2003 that requires medical malpractice lawsuits to be brought in the county where treatment was rendered.

The proposal “would reverse progress that has been made to ensure access for all Pennsylvanians, regardless of ZIP codes, to quality health care,” said Policy Committee Chairman Donna Oberlander, R-Clarion.

Since the rule was implemented in the early 2000s, medical malpractice insurance rates stabilized, keeping doctors practicing in Pennsylvania and alleviating a shortage of physicians and specialists. In fact, the average number of medical malpractice cases filed statewide since the high of 2,094 in 2002 is 1,599. Kevin Cottone, law partner at White and Williams, told the panel that annual medical malpractice filings have remained fairly consistent since 2009.

“The reduction in filings demonstrates that the tort reform measures enacted more than 15 years ago by the Legislature and the Supreme Court are working. Nothing in the data indicates that requiring plaintiffs to bring suit in the county in which the medical malpractice claim arose deprives alleged victims of access to the courts,” Cottone said, according to a statement on the House Republican caucus' website.

Those who testified also agreed that it continues to make logical sense that the county in which the alleged action took place should be the one where a case is filed, instead of a jurisdiction with no real connection to the alleged harm.

Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, have asked the court to preserve the rule:

“Doing so would preserve a significant piece of a multi-branch public policy effort that has a 15-year track record of success in keeping the practice of medicine affordable and accessible throughout our commonwealth,” the leaders said. “The current rule struck a proper constitutional balance between the branches, and we will use the powers delegated to us as we stand behind the medical professionals who want to provide the best quality of care at affordable rates.”