Medical malpractice reform got a big push prior to the 2014 Georgia General Assembly session, but a sweeping bill never made it out of a Senate committee.

Supporters of tort reform vow to bring the proposal back again next year.

They note that four rural hospitals have closed in the past two years, and argue that savings from malpractice reform could prop up many of Georgia’s ailing rural facilities.

Under the legislation, “no doctor or hospital would ever be sued again,’’ Wayne Oliver, executive director of the group Patients for Fair Compensation, says in a new GHN Commentary.

The new patient compensation model, if enacted, “could save $6.9 billion over the next decade,’’ Oliver writes. “That state revenue could be reinvested in rural hospitals that are barely surviving.”

Here is a link to Oliver’s Commentary.

Georgia Health News welcomes Commentary submissions. If you would like to propose a Commentary piece for Georgia Health News, please email Andy Miller, editor of GHN, at amiller@georgiahealthnews.com