Colorado has the best medical liability environment in the country, according to the doctors

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) recently released its report card of emergency medicine in the country for 2014. The association ranked Colorado number one (again) among the states for its Medical Liability Environment. Only two states made an A in this category, and the nation overall received a C- for its medical liability environment.

What is it about Colorado's medical liability environment that leads this physician group to rank it the best in the country? Following are the features cited in the report that led to Colorado's superior grade:

• Allowing health care providers to apologize to patients without those statements being admissible in court as evidence of wrongdoing
• Maintaining expert witness rules that provide for case certification
• Requiring expert witnesses to be of the same specialty as the defendant and licensed to practice medicine in the state
• Allowing malpractice awards to be offset by collateral sources
• Maintaining its $300,000 cap on non-economic damages despite continuous efforts to increase it

ACEP is a professional organization of emergency medicine physicians in the U.S. that engages in legislative and regulatory advocacy on behalf of its membership, among other activities. The fact that a lobbying group for doctors thinks so highly of Colorado's medical liability environment might serve as a signal to consumer groups and lawmakers who are concerned about the welfare of patients injured due to medical malpractice and want to see victims of medical negligence fairly compensated for the harm done to them by medical errors. Maybe Colorado shouldn't try so hard to consistently be the "best" in the country in this particular area.