Medmal payments lowest ever in 2011, advocacy group says
Medical malpractice payments in 2011 were at their lowest level on record by almost any measure, according to a report by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen in Washington, DC.
In the report, “Malpractice Payments Sunk to Record Low in 2011,” Public Citizen analyzed data from the federal National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), which tracks malpractice payments on behalf of doctors. The report found that the number of medical payments and the inflation-adjusted value of such payments were at their lowest levels since 1991, the earliest full year for which such data is available. (The full report is available online at http://www.citizen.org/npdb-report-2012.)
The findings dispute the arguments of some physician groups and policymakers that high malpractice claim costs are a key driver in the rise of healthcare costs, says Taylor Lincoln, research director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and author of the report. “Instead, malpractice victims and ordinary patients end up absorbing significant costs for uncompensated medical errors,” Lincoln says.
The report found that in 2011:
• The number of malpractice payments on behalf of doctors (9,758 payments) was the lowest on record, having fallen for the eighth consecutive year.
• The inflation-adjusted value of payments made on behalf of doctors ($3.2 billion) was the lowest on record. In actual dollars, payments have fallen for eight straight years and are at their lowest level since 1998.
• The average size of medical malpractice payments (about $327,000) declined from previous years.
• Four-fifths of medical malpractice awards compensated for death, catastrophic harm, or serious permanent injuries.
• Medical malpractice payments’ share of the nation’s health care cost was the lowest on record (0.12% of all national health care costs).
• The total costs for medical malpractice litigation for doctors and hospitals (as measured by liability insurance premiums paid) have fallen to their lowest level in two decades. They amounted to 0.36% of national health care expenditures in 2010, the most recent year for which such data is available.
Medical malpractice payments in 2011 were at their lowest level on record by almost any measure, according to a report by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen in Washington, DC.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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