Master Sgt. Richard Stayskal, the soldier whose story moved Congress in 2019 to change the more than 70-year-old law that shielded the military from malpractice claims, had his own claim denied earlier this year. (Bob Reid/Stars and Stripes)
The Defense Department increased its cap on medical malpractice claims to allow for non-economic damages up to $750,000 to be paid out to service members who are mistreated in military medical facilities, the Pentagon announced Friday.
The change, which goes into effect immediately, raises that cap from $600,000, and applies to any pending claims, according to the Defense Department.
A second proposed change updates how the Pentagon offsets payouts to service members based on military or Department of Veteran Affairs benefits that they receive because of the medical condition involved in the claim.
The changes follow calls from members of Congress and the military community that the guidelines put into place roughly two years ago were not providing the right amount of oversight and were failing troops with valid claims.
Master Sgt. Richard Stayskal, the soldier whose story moved Congress in 2019 to change the more than 70-year-old law that shielded the military from malpractice claims, had his own claim denied earlier this year.
Stayskal, who is assigned to Fort Liberty, N.C., was diagnosed in 2017 with terminal lung cancer that grew for months as military doctors mistook his symptoms for pneumonia. It’s since spread to his neck, lymph nodes, spleen, liver, spine, a hip joint and other areas of his body.
The Pentagon began accepting claims in January 2020, but only began adjudicating them on July 17, 2021, when the interim rules on how to do so went into effect, according to the Federal Register.
In March, several members of Congress rallied with Stayskal at a news conference to call for improvements to the Pentagon’s malpractice regulations.
Natalie Khawam, Stayskal’s attorney, said she’s “cautiously optimistic” that the proposed changes will get additional resources in the hands of medical malpractice victims “that’s more commensurate with the harm done to them.”
She called on Congress to do more to improve the medical malpractice system and pass a House bill that allows service members to take their medical malpractice claims to district court. The Healthcare Equality and Rights for Our Heroes Act has not had any further action since its introduction in July.
The proposed regulation changes published Friday in the Federal Register will undergo a 60-day comment period and final evaluation before becoming law, according to the Pentagon.
If published as a final rule, offsetting of other benefits would only apply to economic damages, and would require clarification on when lost wages might be awarded – allowing some troops to receive larger payouts. It also clarifies how to consider the claimant’s ability to return to work.
Of the four claims filed in 2021 and 2022 that would have been affected by these changes, only one would have been different, according to the Federal Register. In that claim, $200,000 was subject to offset. It would not have been offset under the proposed changes.
