The Montana Medical Legal Panel has only one purpose: to prevent malpractice lawsuits. The procedure is biased, case merit is irrelevant, intimidation of complainants can be expected, panel decisions are nonbinding, and it is paid for with your health care dollars.

The randomized panel selection process is biased by using databases obtained from state associations. This excludes professionals who do not join their association or agree with its agenda. After selection, each panelist must agree to participate. Having a particularly keen interest in the outcome of a given case certainly influences that decision.

A bad vote by MMLP helps attorneys convince plaintiffs to settle out of court, giving the attorney a third or more of the settlement amount for doing nothing. But before settlement is made, the important secrecy agreement must be signed, ensuring that the facts of the case cannot be made public. This secrecy agreement leaves others in the community unable to avoid a similar fate and leaves perpetrators of crimes free to repeat the behavior.

Indeed, Montana has created a "petri dish" environment in which patients can be used for experimentation without their knowledge or their consent.

The state has sued pharmaceutical companies, but it has not held doctors accountable for the kickbacks they received or for the resulting patient abuse and death. Their names are secret.

If, indeed, improved health care is the goal, then make mandatory-secrecy agreements illegal and mandate the right of plaintiffs to publish the evidence in the local papers.

Cheryl Wulf

Helena