On Jan. 23, 2012, the Louisiana Supreme Court will hear oral arguments as to the correctness of a Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision declaring the Medical Malpractice Cap unconstitutional.

The case, Oliver v. Magnolia Clinic, held "to the extent it includes nurse practitioners within its ambit, violates the equal protection and adequate remedy of the Louisiana Constitution."

Nurse practitioners were not part of the original crisis that was remedied by the Medical Malpractice Act (MMA) in 1975.

The case ignores the fact that the injured patient received in excess of $1 million in medical benefits in addition to the $500,000 received under the cap. If allowed to stand, the decision potentially eliminates the following groups and professions from MMA protection: ambulance services, certified registered nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives, added in 1986; community blood centers and tissue banks, added in 1987; occupational therapists, added in 1990; licensed midwives, added in1992; social workers, added in 1999; nursing homes, certified nurse assistants and licensed professional counselors, added in 2001; offshore health service providers and licensed perfusionists, added in 2003; EMS students, added in 2004; nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, added in 2009; and licensed respiratory therapists, radiologic technologists and clinical laboratory scientists, added in 2010.

The LHA, physician groups, nursing home representatives, LAMMICO and the Patient's Compensation Fund are all submitting briefs to the Supreme Court on the importance of the case and the MMA, asking that they overturn the Third Circuit decision.

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