A new survey released by the American Hospital Association blames multi-million dollar malpractice judgments for the high premiums and corresponding failures in state health care coverage. The hospital lobby is trying to build support for medical liability reform legislation stalled in the U.S. Senate.

The House of Representatives passed a bill in March that called for a $250,000 cap on non-punitive damages and limits on lawyers’ fees. Connecticut’s representatives voted along party lines, with Republicans Nancy L. Johnson, Christopher Shays and Robert R. Simmons supporting the measure; and Democrats Rosa DeLauro and John B. Larson opposing.

In the Senate, legislation took a hit when Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California withdrew her support from a compromise that proposed similar restrictions, but included exceptions for cases involving catastrophic injury or death. Feinstein’s support was considered critical to forging the bipartisan support necessary to pass a malpractice reform bill in the closely divided Senate.

Liability reform is an issue that pits two powerful special interest lobbies -- the hospitals and the trial lawyers -- against each other.

Hospitals and doctors argue that rising insurance premiums are the result of expensive medical malpractice suits, but trial lawyers say the insurance companies’ bad management has caused the price hikes.

Both have their own experts, statistics and deep pockets. Trial lawyers have made substantial contributions to the campaigns of both of Connecticut’s Democratic senators, Joseph Lieberman and Christopher Dodd. In their last Senate elections, Lieberman got $50,000 from trial lawyers; Dodd received $66,000.

Lieberman, who has not endorsed any specific formula for malpractice reform, has been supported in the past by both hospitals and medical care providers, including the American Hospital Association.

He showed his loyalty to both groups on Tuesday, saying while he thinks malpractice fees “are so high…that they have forced some doctors out of practice,” he also believes that Congress must “find a way to protect the right of people who are injured to get compensation without creating open season for lawsuits.”

Dodd said Tuesday that he would support legislation to hold down malpractice insurance premiums, but remained adamantly opposed to capping damage awards.

“They’re not going to get 40 votes in the Senate for caps,” he said, but indicated he did not believe reform was a dead issue.

Feinstein dropped her support for the emerging liability measure when she found out that the American Medical Association and other hospital groups would not get behind her compromise.

“I am still interested,” she said Tuesday. “The only solution I can think of is what I proposed,” she added, “If AMA… won’t support it, there’s no sense for me to proceed at this time.”

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who are working to craft a compromise bill, continue to look for Democratic support.

The American Hospital Association’s survey of almost 1,100 hospitals focused on hospitals in 18 “crisis states,” including Connecticut, and the differences in liability expenditures between the crisis states and so-called “reform states,” which have instituted damage caps, limitations on attorneys fees and other legal cost containment measures advocated by the association .

But Christopher Bernard, president of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, said this week that rising insurance premiums are not linked to litigation costs but, rather, to problems in the insurance industry.

According to the AHA, hospitals’ liability expenses in crisis states have increased by 158 percent in the past two years – more than twice the rate it cites for the four reform states and substantially higher than the average for other states.

Hospitals in crisis states, the survey said, spend about $11,500 per bed on liability expenses, more than twice the rate of reform states, it said.

The costs, according the AHA, are driving doctors out of business, especially in high-risk practices like obstetrics and neurology.

But others say that those rising costs are not the result of litigation. A report issued last week by the Center for Justice and Democracy, a New York-based organization that advocates victims’ rights, said that in most “crisis states” malpractice claims against doctors are falling or remaining steady, while insurance premiums continue to rise.