Cite as: 521 U. S. 424 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
remedy, have suggested, or imposed, special limitations on that remedy. Compare Ayers, supra, at 608, 525 A. 2d, at 314 (recommending in future cases creation of "a court-supervised fund to administer medical-surveillance payments"); Hansen, supra, at 982 (suggesting insurance mechanism or court-supervised fund as proper remedy); Potter, supra, at 1010, n. 28, 863 P. 2d, at 825, n. 28 (suggesting that a lump-sum damages award would be inappropriate); Burns, supra, at 381, 752 P. 2d, at 34 (holding that lump-sum damages are not appropriate), with, e. g., Honeycutt v. Walden, 294 Ark. 440, 743 S. W. 2d 809 (1988) (damages award for future medical expenses made necessary by physical injury are awarded as lump-sum payment); Rice v. Hill, 315 Pa. 166, 172 A. 289 (1934) (same); and Restatement (Second) of Torts § 920A(2) (1977) (ordinarily fact that plaintiff is insured is irrelevant to amount of tort recovery). Cf. Weinstein, Individual Justice in Mass Tort Litigation, at 154. We believe that the note of caution, the limitations, and the expressed uneasiness with a traditional lump-sum damages remedy are important, for they suggest a judicial recognition of some of the policy concerns that have been pointed out to us here— concerns of a sort that Gottshall identified.
Since, for example, the particular cancer-related costs at issue are the extra monitoring costs, over and above those otherwise recommended, their identification will sometimes pose special "difficult[ies] for judges and juries." Gottshall, 512 U. S., at 557. Those difficulties in part can reflect uncertainty among medical professionals about just which tests are most usefully administered and when. Cf. Report of U. S. Preventive Services Task Force, Guide to Clinical Preventive Services xxvii, xxx-xxxi, xlvii-xcii (2d ed. 1996). And in part those difficulties can reflect the fact that scientists will not always see a medical need to provide systematic scientific answers to the relevant legal question, namely, whether an exposure calls for extra monitoring. Cf. App. 182 (testimony by Buckley's expert conceding that periodic colon cancer screening "is recommended by the American
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