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The Medical Malpractice Insurance Crisis
By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™
[Publisher-in-Chief, FA and Health Insurance Agent]
Has the Corner Been Turned?
In the fall of 2003, the American Medical Association announced that six more states had reached a medical malpractice crisis, with patients losing access to care due to physician attrition. The AMA’s list of crisis states then totaled 18.
The new states were: Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and North Carolina. The 12 states previously identified are: Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.
More recently, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) reported that medical malpractice premiums for its members increased by more than 53% between 2003 and 2004. Today, about 25% of those physicians planned to retire, relocate or restrict their services over the next few years. Massachusetts was especially hard hit in 2003-06, as the practice environment worsened for the twelfth consecutive year, driven primarily by rising premiums for medical malpractice coverage.
Yet, in 2007, the rate of medical malpractice claims fell for the fourth straight year in Pennsylvania, with half the payout of 2003. That suggests that claims are getting smaller, as observer’s credit a 2002 law which banned attorneys from moving cases to counties they felt would have more favorable juries. Now, the state’s physicians would like to see the state enact caps on non-economic damages.
So, how is this crisis affecting you; if at all?
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Filed under: Professional Liability | Tagged: Malpractice Liability |
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Liability
In 2010, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) estimated that approximately 13.5% of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries experienced adverse events during their hospitalizations, 44% of which were deemed preventable by independent physician reviewers.
Within this estimate, the OIG subdivided the adverse events into four clinical categories:
(1) Events related to medication – 31%;
(2) Events related to ongoing patient care – 28%;
(3) Events related to surgery or other procedures – 26%; and,
(4) Events related to infection – 15%.
A 2013 study published in Journal of Patient Safety combined the OIG’s estimate with the estimates of three other studies relating to the prevalence of medical errors to conclude that over “210,000 preventable adverse events per year…contribute to the death of hospitalized patients,” with numerous additional errors shortening patients’ lifespans and causing other harms.
Robert James Cimasi MHA AVA CMP®
[Health Capital Consultants, LLC]
http://www.HealthCapital.com
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