Study: Medical Malpractice Cases Common, Payouts Are Not and As Hospitals Push ERs, States’ Medicaid Budgets Pressured

Sat Sep 3 13:15:10 PDT 2011

August 18, 2011
Study: Medical Malpractice Cases Common, Payouts Are Not
Kaiser Health News

The findings of new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that only one in five malpractice lawsuits results in a payout. The authors conclude that the truth behind these numbers is complicated.

The Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer: 1 in 5 Malpractice Cases Leads To A Payout 

Only 1 in 5 malpractice claims against doctors leads to a settlement or other payout, according to the most comprehensive study of these claims in two decades. But while doctors and their insurers may be winning most of these challenges, that's still a lot of fighting. Each year about 1 in 14 doctors is the target of a claim, and most physicians and virtually every surgeon will face at least one in their careers, the study found. ... The study might seem to support a common opinion among doctors that most malpractice lawsuits are baseless, but the authors said the truth was more complicated than that (Stobbe, 8/18).

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog: New Study Measures Doctors' Malpractice Risks

In a report that cuts to the heart of the tort-reform debate, the New England Journal of Medicine has released this study that attempts to measure the economic and emotional impact of medical malpractice cases on doctors. The thrust of the findings: malpractice cases are common but rarely successful (Koppel, 8/17).

August 22, 2011
As Hospitals Push ERs, States’ Medicaid Budgets Pressured

Kaiser Health News

By Phil Galewitz

Complaining of abdominal discomfort and chronic bronchitis, 22-year-old Toshia Johnson, an unemployed mother on Medicaid, went to a hospital emergency room in Bend, Ore., more than two dozen times in the year that ended in June 2010. She was never admitted to the hospital and used the ER for routine care because, she says, it's near her home and the care was free.

But in the first six months of this year, after entering a state-funded program designed to reduce unnecessary ER use by Medicaid patients in central Oregon, Johnson has gone to the ER just once, after breaking her tailbone. In the first half of this this year, ER visits by the 400 patients in this program have declined by more than half from the same period last year, saving Medicaid $1 million, officials say.

Efforts to reduce unnecessary ER visits by patients in Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program for the poor and disabled, are proliferating as states search for ways to control the soaring costs of the program. But state officials complain that their efforts are sometimes hampered by hospitals' aggressive marketing of ERs to increase admissions and profits.

"Many hospitals are actively recruiting people to come to the ER for non-emergency reasons," said Anthony Keck, South Carolina's Medicaid director, citing facilities that tout their speedy ER service on highway billboards. "When you are advertising on billboards that your ER wait time is three minutes, you are not advertising to stroke and heart attack victims," he said.

ER visits totaled 124 million in 2008, an increase of about 31 percent since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average wait time for treatment is 33 minutes, up from 22 minutes.

For the rest of the article, please see:
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/August/23/ER-Diversions-Washington-Post.aspx

Anna Parks &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service

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