N.J. MED-MAL DATA ON WEB:

New Jersey patients soon will be able to use a new state Web site to obtain information about doctors, including details about malpractice claims they have settled. The release of the information cleared a legal hurdle when a federal judge allowed the state to release the records. Public notification of malpractice payouts was signed into law last year by the governor, and was the subject of a lawsuit brought against the state by a daily newspaper, The Record of Bergen County. Doctors had opposed a state judge’s order earlier this year to release records of the payments, which are made by the companies that provide malpractice insurance. Doctors said settlements are neither admissions of negligence nor measures of competence. “This does nothing but besmirch the names of doctors. We’re back to Hester Prynne and ‘The Scarlet Letter.’ This is absurd,” said Robert Conroy, attorney for the Medical Society of New Jersey. But U.S. District Court Judge William G. Bassler said withholding the malpractice payment records would mean people are “deprived of information that can be vital in making one of the most serious decisions in one’s life—one’s health care.” Data released by the state Division of Consumer Affairs showed that over the last five years New Jersey insurance companies have paid more than $890 million in malpractice payments, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported. Those payments were on behalf of 2,333 doctors, or a little more than 10 percent of the state’s 22,000 physicians, the newspaper reported. The state-run Web site with details about doctors became active June 23.