Wall Street Journal Law Blog Q & A with Philip K. Howard, Part 2
As promised, part 2 of Philip K. Howard’s interview with The Wall Street Journal Law Blog’s Ashby Jones.
[Wall Street Journal Law Blog]
February 11, 2010 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Wall Street Journal Law Blog Q & A with Philip K. Howard
On Monday, Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal Law Blog published part one of his interview with Philip K. Howard. The conversation focused primarily on Life Without Lawyers, which is now available in paperback, using the book as a starting place to discuss the finer points of Howard’s critiques, how they differ from those offered by proponents of traditional reform (such as tort reform), and what practical solutions he offers. Part Two should be forthcoming today.
[Wall Street Journal Law Blog]
February 09, 2010 | Comments (0) | Permalink
VIDEO: Philip K. Howard Delivers Opening Keynote at Georgetown CBPP Event
Below is a video excerpt from the December 4, 2009 event, “Unpacking Customer Satisfaction: The Role of Customer Complaints Across Industries and Agencies,” hosted by the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy, in which Philip K. Howard delivers the opening keynote address.
[Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy]
February 04, 2010 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Life Without Lawyers in Paperback January 31, 2010
Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America will be released in paperback on January 31, 2010. It’s already available for purchase in hardcover and on Amazon Kindle.
Promotional materials to follow.
January 12, 2010 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Fulfilling the Promise: Panel One - What are the Most Promising Alternatives to Fix Healthcare?
Although the entire webcast is archived here, sections of the Common Good forum are now available for viewing. Here is panel one, for which Philip K. Howard was among the speakers:
December 22, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
On December 11, 2009, Philip K. Howard sat down with NPR’s Robert Siegel to discuss medical liability reform as part of the Maxwell School/Public Agenda Policy Breakfast Series.
Watch the video below:
December 17, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Philip K. Howard Discusses School Discipline at EducationNext
“Strong leadership, respect for authority, and perception of fairness are essential to create a positive, productive school culture,” Philip K. Howard writes in a piece for EducationNext. “And yet the encroachment of due process into daily discipline decisions has undermined all three.” Citing a 2009 study by Richard Arum and Doreet Preiss showing “that the threat of litigation is a real presence in the lives of educators, one that casts a shadow over their decisions,” Howard suggests that educators “reverse course” by re-enforcing the role of teachers as leaders in the classroom, and by fostering a culture that will “encourage all members of the school community to participate in promoting the values and discipline protocols in schools.”
December 15, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Philip K. Howard in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Reform Galaxy Blog
In a posting at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Reform Galaxy blog,
Philip K. Howard discusses the value of health courts as a tool not just for reliable justice, but for improved care and cost containment as well. He speculates about the prospects of Congress passing any constructive medical liability reform, such as the Common Good- and Harvard School of Public Health-designed health court proposal. “The good news,” he writes, “is that, whatever happens in Congress with health courts, the Obama Administration has signaled that it wants to fund pilot projects for liability innovations.”
Referencing Common Good’s December 10th forum, “Fulfilling the Promise” – organized with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – to aid the Administration’s efforts, Howard reminds us that, despite the trial bar’s opposition to reform, “patient safety experts, consumer groups, providers, as well as editorial boards and the public at large, all overwhelmingly support trying to create a reliable foundation of justice.” Howard concludes by paraphrasing Martin Hatlie, President of the Partnership for Patient Safety and a “Fulfilling the Promise” speaker: “the question is not whether healthcare justice will change, but when.”
December 15, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
On Thursday, December 10th, Common Good, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will hold a forum titled “Fulfilling The Promise: Advancing Patient Safety and Medical Liability Reform Innovations” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The forum is intended to educate “states, health care systems, and other interested entities and individuals…about patient safety and medical liability reform innovations, and how to develop viable proposals for submission to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality next January.” Philip K. Howard will be among the speakers, listed below:
- Dr. Lucian L. Leape, Chair, Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation
- Michelle Mello, Professor of Law and Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health
- Randall R. Bovbjerg, Senior Fellow, Health Policy Center, The Urban Institute
- Nancy Foster, Vice President for Quality and Patient Safety Policy, American Hospital Association
- Dr. Albert L. Strunk, Deputy Executive Vice President, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- Elaine Brightwater, Senior Project Coordinator, Center for Development and Disability, University of New Mexico
- Richard C. Boothman, Chief Risk Officer, University of Michigan Health System
- E. Donald Elliott, Professor (adj) of Law, Yale Law School and Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Washington DC
- Gordon H. Smith, Executive Vice President, Maine Medical Association
- Dr. Alan C. Woodward, Former President, Massachusetts Medical Society
- Martin J. Hatlie, President, Partnership for Patient Safety
- David J. Oakley, Counsel, Healthcare, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
- Robert J. Walling, Principal and Consultant, Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, Inc.
- Philip K. Howard, Chair, Common Good
Questions the forum will address include:
- How can projects be designed to address both patient safety and medical liability?
- What are the best ways to include key stakeholders in projects?
- How can projects be measured and evaluated?
The forum will run from 8:00AM (including a continental breakfast at 8) until 2:00PM. To RSVP for the forum, e-mail your name and contact information to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Space is limited, but the event will be webcast live, beginning at 8:30AM on December 10th, from the following site: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=64481.
December 03, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Spokesman-Review calls Philip K. Howard's Medical Liability Reform Proposal a 'Better Solution'
In a Sunday opinion piece, the editorial board of the Spokesman-Review urges Democrats and Republicans to move past “counterproductive…partisan jabbing” in the health care reform debate. Taking tort reform as an example, the article notes that Democrats eschew the issue entirely because of their ties to trial lawyers, while Republicans rally for non-economic damage caps with the support of insurance companies. “If either side gets what it wants,” argues the Review, “costs in this area won’t be contained.” The problem with damage caps, as the $250,000 medical malpractice award cap in Texas illustrates, is that although they reduce malpractice premiums for physicians and reduce the number of malpractice cases taken to court, “health care costs continue to rise because the savings are not passed along to the public.” The Review sees health courts as a more attractive approach:
A better solution is the one promoted by Common Good’s Philip K. Howard. He calls for Congress to authorize special medical courts, where experts would adjudicate cases in a timely manner. A landmark Harvard study shows that only 3 percent of harmed patients ever file lawsuits. Medical courts could end this roulette wheel of justice by addressing complaints and establishing a culture where apologies for honest mistakes are not fodder for protracted litigation. Plus, such courts would remove defensive medicine as an excuse for unnecessary tests and procedures.
The article goes on to call health courts one of the “low-cost, high-yield solutions to medical inflation.” “If partisans could compromise on these and other issues,” it concludes, “it would be a total victory for the public.”
November 23, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Two Recent Recommendations of Books by Philip K. Howard
In a post today on her blog Free-Range Kids, columnist Lenore Iskenazy writes that a recent article on zero tolerance has reminded her to “recommend, again, the mindblowing book, Life Without Lawyers, by Philip Howard, head of Common Good.” She goes on:
[Howard’s] plea is for leaders to boldly re-assert their ability to make judgments. After all, that is what they are supposed to do — that’s why they are in positions of leadership! To constantly defer to one-size-fits-all rules is an abdication of their responsibility, which is to THINK and yes, to JUDGE situations using their rusting hearts and minds.
Why is it so radical to ask that humans act like humans instead of droids?
Meanwhile, Dennis Wyatt, Managing Editor of the Manteca Bulletin, had glowing things to say yesterday about another book by Howard. “The intimidation of staff that prompts them to retreat into the safety of codes and procedures that further stymie businesses and economic health,” Wyatt notes, “is well documented in the book The Death of Common Sense by Philip K. Howard. Howard’s book delineates how laws – and the hammering of bureaucrats by individual politicians with personal agendas – can have expensive consequences that defy common sense.”
[Manteca Bulletin - Online Edition]
November 11, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Live Webcast of Philip K. Howard at the Legal Reform Summit in Washington, D.C.
Be sure to watch Philip K. Howard today at the 10th Annual Legal Reform Summit. In a session moderated by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Howard and Stanford Professor Daniel P. Kessler will discuss the correlation between lawsuits and rising cost of health care. The session is scheduled to begin at 2:00PM ET.
October 28, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
The AP Reports a 'Boost' for Health Courts
In a release today, the Associated Press reports a “boost” for the health courts concept, thanks to President Obama’s “willingness to consider alternatives to medical malpractice lawsuits.” According to the article, proponents of health courts, and a similar proposal by the American Hospital Association, will have an opportunity to to “urge the administration to provide funds for a pilot program” at a Health and Human Services hearing next week. “Obama has set aside $25 million to test a range of alternatives to malpractice litigation, and the hearing is the first step in deciding how to distribute it.”
The article cites Philip K. Howard and Common Good as long time proponents of the health courts idea. As Howard explains in the article, “All patients would benefit from such a system because it would create an incentive for doctors to follow clinical best practice guidelines.” The article also quotes Howard in reference to doctor’s fears of being sued: “Defensive medicine is the result of distrust by doctors in situations where they are blamed when a sick person get sicker, but they didn’t do anything wrong.” The health courts concept is intended to alleviate this culture of fear and distrust while still providing fair compensation to injured patients.
October 21, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Philip K. Howard Featured in 'Scaling Back Justice?' (CBS Sunday Morning)
The CBS News Sunday Morning report that aired yesterday – titled “Scaling Back Justice?” – highlighted Philip K. Howard as the leading advocate for shifting law away from its current formulation as “a system of micromanagement [that] gets in the way of everyone’s daily choices,” and back to its intended role as “a framework for freedom.” The report featured interviews with Howard, as well as with Congressman Jim Cooper, American Teachers Federation President Randi Weingarten, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, and Dr. Albert Strunk of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, all of whom support Howard’s message that too much law has interfered with the freedoms of daily life. “Phil Howard is one of our heroes,” said Weingarten, referring to Howard’s advocacy for teachers. Dr. Strunk lauded Howard’s health courts proposal as an alternative to malpractice litigation, “because it would help us to remove the fear and anxiety that exists about the current system.” [CBS Sunday Morning]
October 19, 2009 | Comments (3) | Permalink
CBS News’ Sunday Morning to Report on Legal Fear in America
On Sunday, October 18th, the lead story on CBS News’ Sunday Morning will be on the impact of legal fear in America. The segment will touch upon many of the themes explored in Life Without Lawyers. In most markets, the program airs at 9:00 AM – see here for the airtime on your local station.
October 16, 2009 | Comments (0) | Permalink
