For the second consecutive year, medical malpractice payouts increased more than 4% from the previous year, according to an analysis Diederich Healthcare conducted of the medical malpractice payout data provided by the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). Diederich Healthcare is a division of Diederich Insurance Agency, which provides comprehensive medical malpractice insurance and consulting services.
After seeing a steady decline in medical malpractice payout amounts from 2003 through 2012, malpractice payouts started to rise in 2013 and continued to rise at a steady pace in 2014, which marks a trend of increased medical malpractice payouts in the United States. The NPDB data in 2014 saw an increase of 4.4% in total payout amounts, which brought the total closer to the $4 billion mark. In fact, if the trend continues, 2015 could be the year that the United States crosses the $4 billion threshold.
Several states saw a decrease in medical malpractice payout amounts, such as California and much of the western area of the United States. However, most states saw an increase, particularly states in the South and the Northeast. New York is again the highest state in terms of per capita payouts at $36.15. The Northeast as a whole had a per capita payout rate of $28.20, which is more than three times greater than the next highest region (the Midwest).
The full payout analysis is available online at http://tinyurl.com/nh2q5dw.
