Medical Malpractice Claims Hit New Low

Evidence that tort reform is unnecessary to preserve quality health care, reduce health care costs, and protect health care providers from frivolous claims continues to mount.  A new study by Public Citizen, which examined information from the National Practitioner Data Bank (a federal repository of medical data, including medical malpractice claims), shows that the number of medical malpractice claims paid in 2011 hit an all time low – only 9758.  Not surprisingly the amount of each payment and the total of all payments are also the lowest they have been since the database was established in 1991. 

Medical malpractice payments are a scant 1/10th of one percent of health care expenditures.  This means that even if all medical malpractice payments were eliminated, the effect on the cost of health care would be negligible. 

When coupled with evidence that health care costs and malpractice premiums in the states which have enacted tort reform principles have actually gone up more than the states which have not, you have to seriously question the integrity of political claims that tort reform is necessary as a cost saving measure which will reign in an out of control legal system fraught with frivolous claims.  Indeed, the study suggests that most medical malpractice claims involve death or serious injuries like quadriplegia, brain damage and other conditions requiring life-long care – anything but frivolous injuries.  As I have discussed in previous posts, millions of American are the victims of malpractice each year, but many of those claims simply can’t be brought because the cost of doing so is too high relative to the harm suffered.  More importantly, when insurers are not made to bear the burden of significant harm caused by their clients, we all get stuck with the bill.

No doubt, we will continue to hear the drum beat of tort reform, and perhaps it even can be used an an explanation for the reduced number of claims, but I have yet to see any empirical evidence which suggests that it has made heath care any safer or any cheaper for consumers or health care providers.  I have, however, seen it deprive catastrophically injured people of both their dignity and justice for the harm they have suffered.  On the bright side, at least now that insurance companies are people, someone is benefiting.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/767273

Posted in Health Care Costs, Malpractice caps, Malpractice costs, Medical Costs, Medical Malpractice, Medical Negligence, tort reform | Tagged , , , , , |