A committee of U.S. plastic surgeons is warning colleagues of long-term costs for trying to pick up some extra cash by shading their court testimony.
The panel, speaking Tuesday at a Philadelphia meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said untruthful testimony punishes good doctors and pushes doctors' medical malpractice liability insurance premiums even higher.
And that, in turn, forces many physicians to modify their practice and pass costs on to their patients, panel participants said.
"No doubt there are people who have had surgery, and malpractice has been committed," said Dr. Paul Weiss, former chair of the ASPS Task Force on Expert Witness Testimony and panel participant.
"ASPS believes those patients deserve to be protected and have their day in court. However, we also believe that physicians who offer untruthful and misleading testimony that does not match the industry's standard of care to support a malpractice case should be culled out of the system for everyone's benefit."
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
