Missouri Bill with Medical Malpractice Caps Sent to Governor

A measure to reinstate limits on lawsuit awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases is heading to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s desk three years after the state Supreme Court overturned lower caps.

The Missouri House voted 125-27 to approve a measure that limits noneconomic damages in malpractice cases. The state’s high court eliminated the previous caps in a 2012 decision that hospital and doctor’s groups warned would increase insurance costs, stall expansions of hospitals and deter doctors from practicing in the state.

The measure, a compromise reached by Senate Democrats and Republicans, would cap most noneconomic awards – which do not include lost wages, medical costs or other measurable economic damages – at $400,000. In catastrophic cases defined in the bill the cap would be $700,000.

SB 239 also raises an existing $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages in wrongful death cases to $700,000. The caps would rise by 1.7 percent each year under the measure.