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The current tort reform bills (fault limits, no pay/no play, etc.) are good, but they’re not addressing the medical billing scam, which is a huge part of the problem. Injury lawyers send clients to certain doctors who skip insurance and bill at inflated rates through liens, then use those fake prices in court to boost settlements. It’s legal, but it’s driving up everyone’s insurance premiums — and nobody's fixing it.

There was another bill passed in the Senate that attempted to address this, but I don’t know where it stands.

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This lack of results was among the points of contention during Wednesday’s debate on Senate Bill 231, which took up most of the evening before the bill passed in a 27-8 vote. Sponsored by Sen. Mike Reese, R-Leesville, it would effectively reduce the money plaintiffs can recover for medical expenses in an auto accident lawsuit. The amount would be limited to what a plaintiff actually pays for care rather than what doctors and hospitals bill.

Supporters of Reese’s bill argue it would provide medical billing transparency in personal injury lawsuits and prevent plaintiffs’ attorneys from basing claims on artificially inflated medical bills no one actually pays.

There was also something about hiding or not hiding the details of defendant’s insurance coverages which was focused on juries that are good with any amount as long as it is only being paid by the insurance company. Not sure what current law is, but I have been part of a jury where most of jury didn’t care about accuracy of amounts claimed as long as it was covered by insurance. It was like they thought insurance money was free money to hand out regardless of actual damages or expenses and that insurances paying out these inflated awards had zero effect on insurance rates. It was similar to justification used all the people stealing from stores and saying it’s covered by insurance.

This post was edited on 6/3/25 at 3:01 pm