The Iowa Legislature approved a bill that places a cap on the amount of money that can be distributed in a medical malpractice lawsuit, $1 million for individual doctors and $2 million for hospitals. State Representative Brooke Boden tells KNIA News the cap does not apply to economic damages, and is an important way to help retain talented doctors to stay in the state and staff the rural hospitals.

“These assurances are what will keep our OB’s (OBGYN Doctors) in towns and districts that are now losing them by the dozens. Because these doctors graduate and let’s face it, Iowa is a great place to raise our families, but we don’t have beaches and sunshine all the time. So remaining competitive is an important thing to retain these students that come to Iowa and go through all of our programs, and one of the things that these students said when they came and talked to me was we look at that. Mistakes happen, we all know that, and what happens with that is in the bill.”

To learn more about the bill and other issues in the Iowa Legislature, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Indianola.