Study finds 4 in 10 medical liability claims are without merit -AND- Medical liability reform falls short in U.S. Senate

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

Study finds 4 in 10 medical liability claims are without merit

Source: American Hospital Association (http://www.ahanews.com) 
Date: May 11, 2006


About 40% of medical liability claims are without merit, according to a study
(<http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/354/19/2024>) in today’s New
England Journal of Medicine that reviewed a random sample of closed claims
from five liability insurers to determine whether a medical injury or error
had occurred. Claims that did not involve errors were more than twice as
likely to go to trial as claims that did. The average claim took five years
to resolve, and a third of claims took six years or longer. The combination
of defense costs and standard contingency fees charged by plaintiffs’
attorneys brought the total costs of litigating the claims studied to 54% of
the compensation paid to plaintiffs. The authors conclude that reforms are
needed to improve the liability system’s efficiency in handling reasonable
claims for compensation. The study was conducted by researchers at the
Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Risk Management Foundation in
Boston.


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Medical liability reform falls short in U.S. Senate

Source: AMA eVoice (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/16267.html) 
Date: May 11, 2006


A majority of U.S. Senators voted to stop a filibuster on medical liability
reform, but the bill fell short of the 60 votes needed to move the legislation
to the Senate floor. Forty-eight senators approved the Medical Care Access
Protection Act (S. 22), which included a $250,000 limit on noneconomic damages
for physicians in medical liability cases and was based on reforms working in
Texas to stop that state's medical liability crisis.

"America's patients want and need medical liability reform," said AMA Trustee
Cecil B. Wilson, MD, after the vote. "The AMA will continue to support national
legislation based on proven reforms that work to stabilize medical liability
insurance premiums and preserve patient access to health care."

In related news, a Harvard study published in the New England Journal of
Medicine found that 40 percent of medical liability lawsuits are filed with
either no verifiable medical injuries or errors.

"Of the cases that go to trial physicians are found not negligent 83 percent of
the time, but defense costs average more than $90,000 and time away from
patient care," said Dr. Wilson in response to the study. "As the study points
out, 'the overhead costs of malpractice litigation are exorbitant.'"

Visit the Web site (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/16265.html) to read Dr.
Wilson's statement.

Also this week, the AMA strongly refuted a study published in Health Affairs
that suggested a medical liability crisis does not exist.



Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/


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