...rising cost of Medical Malpractice insurance Sharron Wickham BU224 Kaplan University Professor Greg Evans April 3, 2014 Quick rising medical malpractice premiums have become a concerning problem and a discussion for doctors, insurance policy writers and even the public. The rise in medical malpractice insurance costs can have a big effect in the way health care is given in the U.S. Rises in the premiums can change the size of our doctor workforce and can even cause the doctors to practice “defensive medicine”. Medical malpractice insurance premiums are a huge discussion and have changed over the past 30 years, affecting the areas doctors are trying to work in and how they are practicing medicine, this can cause the people to not receive the best care they can. Just 30 years ago a doctor could feel comfortable in the room with his patient, laugh talk about the family and enjoy the time with the patient, as well as take care of their health needs. There were way more doctors that made house calls back in the day and more doctors willing to practice medicine in any area. So what changed? The fact that patients took advantage of the doctors and started suing doctors for malpractice. Malpractice claims have been known to have juries that make excessively generous awards knowing that insurance companies pay. For this reason, malpractice premiums have skyrocketed over the past 30 years. According to Towers Perrin, a global professional services firm, malpractice litigation...
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...Brian Ardizzoni Michael Neil English 1301, Composition 1 25 November 2012 Medical Malpractice For nearly forty years, tort reform constantly becomes an increasingly controversial issue affecting the medical community, the legal community and most of all, the victims of some very unfortunate accidents. Tort reform refers to laws passed on a state-by-state basis which place limits or caps on the type or amount of damages awarded in personal injury lawsuits. Those who advocate medical malpractice tort reform believe limitations should be set on the amount of damages a plaintiff or injured party can be rewarded by the court. These advocates usually include medical professionals and insurance companies. Their argument is that too many frivolous lawsuits lead to high malpractice insurance, the increasing cost of medical care and a burden on the taxpayers whose tax dollars absorb the extravagant litigation costs for these claims. They believe doctors will eventually be unable to practice medicine due to costly malpractice insurance premiums which may leave many Americans unable to obtain much-needed healthcare. In the past, as the rate of malpractice suits began to grow, so did the rate of malpractice insurance. This ended up having a dire impact on the medical profession. For one thing, many qualified doctors ended up leaving their practices and focusing more on preventative medicine. In other words, they...
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...National estimates of medical liability system costs—including settlements, legal and administrative costs and defensive medicine—range from $55.6 billion annually to $200 billion annually (NCSL, 2011). Medical malpractice reform, also known as tort reform, includes strategies to limit medical malpractice costs, deter medical errors, and ensure that patients who are injured by medical negligence are fairly compensated. Tort reform has the potential to reduce health care expenditures by reducing the number of malpractice claims, the average size of malpractice awards and tort liability system administrative costs. It also may lead to fewer instances of defensive medicine where physicians order tests and procedures not primarily to ensure the health of the patient but as a safeguard against possible medical malpractice liability (NCSL, 2011). Medical malpractice reform proponents argue that tort reforms—such as limiting malpractice awards, tightening statutes of limitations for filing claims, increasing expert witness standards, and screening cases before they go to trial—not only reduce overall medical care spending but also increase access to care (NCSL, 2011). Strategies to improve malpractice claims include limiting awards; placing stricter limits on statutes of limitations; establishing minimum qualifications for expert witnesses; periodic payment provisions; modified Collateral Source Rules; Attorney Contingent fee limits; and other medical Liability related reforms...
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...Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations In this assignment we will cover the statute of limitations that govern medical malpractice. We will do such by identifying the statute of limitations placed on medical malpractice by Alabama and Massachusetts. We will discuss some of the similarities and differences between the two. The State of Alabama has very specific rules when it comes to the statute of limitations they impose on medical malpractice. In Alabama all actions against health-care providers must be filed within two years after the date of the injury occurred, or within six months of the date the injury was, or should have been, discovered. In no event may a suit be filed more than four years after the date of the act giving rise to the injury occurred. This limitations period applies to minors over four years of age. However, in the case of a minor under four years of age, that minor has until his or her eighth birthday to file a medical malpractice action In Massachusetts there are also certain statutes of limitations for medical malpractice that must be considered if filing a malpractice suit. All medical malpractice actions must be filed within seven years after the date of the act or omission giving rise to the injury with the exception of actiosn for a foreign object being left inside the body, in which case the limitations period begins to run when the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the presence of the foreign object. For medical malpractice...
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...Medical Malpractice and Quality of Care: With the increase in costs of malpractice insurance for doctors, how is our quality of care affected and what can be done about it? Rising malpractice insurance affects everyone seeking medical care and should be a cause for serious concern. At first, the health care industry saw rising premiums as only a temporary backlash from a couple of lawsuits with multimillion dollar jury awards. Therefore, health care administrators, insurance companies, and public officials worried little about planning for the snow-balling crisis that exists today. People blame greedy lawyers and generous juries for the problem; however, I feel that more than one cause led to our current situation. Today, administrators and lawmakers debate the best solution to this dilemma. Many suggest that by merely capping monetary damages awarded, malpractice rates will stabilize. I disagree. I believe that monetary caps must occur to help with the costs, but I also feel that patient/public awareness is essential to the stabilization of insurance premiums. After the first multimillion dollar award in a medical malpractice lawsuit, physicians still felt safe because they believed juries would place little or no emphasis on non-economic damages – awards unrelated to medical costs, lost salary, etc. However, the lawsuits kept coming and the awards, especially for non-economic damages, kept escalating. According to the New York Times, “the average jury...
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...Medical Malpractice and Informed Consent In order to prove that Dr. Green was negligent in her treatment of Mr. Parker the plaintiff needed to prove that Dr. Green did not perform her duty, breached her duty, caused the injures, and that she suffered damaged. In this case, Dr. Green did not exercise reasonable care under the circumstances by not following the manufactures stated dosing instructions and prescribing the incorrect dose in both oral and written instructions. Dr. Green violated her breach of duty by failing to meet the applicable standard of care. It would be hard to argue that others physicians would have prescribed the incorrect dose in their standard treatment of care. It is my opinion that plaintiff would succeed in proving that Dr. Green did not perform her duty and breached her duty. While the statement of facts presented does not state the amount that is needed to overdose on pentamite or what effects of an incorrect dosage will have on an individual taking pentamite, the plaintiff could argue that taking the prescribed dosage of 10 times the stated dose by the manufacturer for two weeks caused the heart attack that ended Mr. Parker’s life. Dr. Green could argue that the dizzy spells were a sign of a medical condition that no matter what treatment she gave, the heart attack that ended Mr. Parker’s life could have happened and she did not cause it. In order to estimate the success of this claim I would need more information about pentamite and need...
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...Medical Malpractice Tort Reform in the Healthcare Industry Medical malpractice reform, also known as tort reform, includes strategies to limit medical malpractice costs, deter medical errors and ensure that patients who are injured by medical negligence are fairly compensated. Tort reform has the potential to reduce health care expenditures by reducing the number of malpractice claims, the average size of malpractice awards and tort liability system administrative costs (Medical Malpractice Reform, 2011). Since the 1970s, medical malpractice has been a controversial social issue, which has caused physicians to have increasing concerns about the large number of lawsuits and the negative connotations that tend to go along with them. Physicians have started pushing for legal reforms to decrease the large monetary awards for damages whereas tort attorneys have argued that the negligence suits are an effective way of compensating the victims fairly and forcing the medical professions to follow a proper standard of care (Pozgar, 2013). An article from the Journal of Patient Safety estimates that between 210,000 to 400,000 people die every year in the U.S. from hospital medical errors and 1 in 14 U.S. doctors face a malpractice lawsuit every year (Corapi, 2014). Physicians and healthcare providers argue that the millions of dollars that are awarded in damages increase the cost of healthcare by passing this cost onto the consumer in the form of higher insurance premiums and...
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...Florida Supreme Court Tosses Medical Malpractice Caps Lenore LaBree HCS/430 March 17, 2014 Nancy Geedey Florida Supreme Court Tosses Medical Malpractice Caps Medical malpractice law suits are common within the United States. This paper will discuss this regulatory issue and the relationship it has to the nature, sources and functions of the law. The information in this paper will also educate the readers on the medical malpractice laws and the reasoning for caps being placed on malpractice. Malpractice is a form of negligence that is defined as “professional negligence” (Fremgen, 2012 p. 39, para. 6). Both malpractice and negligence relate to wrongdoing. Negligence leads to liability in malpractice. Professional malpractice includes physicians, nurses, lawyers, accountants, pharmacists, and other health care professionals (Fremgen, 2012). This is why it is important for health care professionals to carry medical malpractice insurance. This type of insurance is costly for physicians, but is a must for physicians to have in the event he or she loses a litigation case. The physicians’ medical malpractice insurance also covers the employee within the facility that are not licensed. Because of the nature of today’s litigation on medical malpractice most other licensed medical professionals carry his or her own insurance for reassurance. In the past, people could sue hospitals and/or physicians for medical malpractice and a jury would decide how much the patient would be...
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...practiced medicine as a duty to their patients and to society. Laws were developed in order to keep patients safe; therefore, ensuring that doctors practiced medicine to the best of their capability. In recent years, medical malpractice has increased dramatically. Now in today’s society, a doctor’s duty is to use reasonable care, judgement, and skill in his/her profession and when negligent, take full responsibility. In other cases, medical malpractice has been used against doctors by patients in order to sue and gain large amounts of money. In a well developed essay defend, challenge, or qualify whether medical malpractice is a serious issue at hand and whether it can have an impact on the medical field. Malpractice at its core is negligence and negligence is a tort; therefore, malpractice is a civil wrong. This is a detrimental issue within our society because it affects every person and in reality our health is the most important thing we have to maintain. Every health care provider assumes a duty when starting consultations, diagnosis, or treatment of a patient. This duty can be expressed in concrete form, such as a contract, given to the health care provider at the beginning of his/her position as a physician or an implied ethical duty to carry out medical processes with reasonable care and skill. If the doctor fails to provide the patient with appropriate diagnosis they have made a violation of their duty; as a result, a violation of a doctors duty ultimately causes...
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...When compared to other personal injury claims, medical malpractice cases are often far more expensive and time-consuming to pursue. As such, medical malpractice attorneys will only accept cases where the potential settlement amount significantly exceeds the costs of litigation. If you are unsure whether you have grounds for a medical malpractice claim, David E. Groover Law Firm LLC in Calhoun, GA will provide you with a fair and honest case assessment. Guilty Verdict Should your physician be found guilty or admit fault, you will be awarded a settlement – financial compensation for your damages. Your personal injury lawyer and the defendant’s lawyer will write up a release, determined by your injuries, age, and state laws, which documents how the settlement will be dispersed. In most cases, it will take a month or so for both attorneys to agree on the settlement terms. The defendant’s insurance company will then...
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...Medical Malpractice Court’s Decisions Recent studies on 232 court cases dealing with medical malpractice over a 5-year period (2006-2010), were evaluated according to medical discipline, diagnosis, therapy, relevant level of care, negligence, lawsuits and other criteria (Knaak & Parzeller, 2014). Expectations are high when it comes to modern medical treatment. There can be many arising complications associated with potential malpractice. Such complications are unavoidable and can definitely lead to expensive and timely lawsuits. From a patient’s perspective, malpractice is solely in hands of the physician’s liability. There is an established principle of ‘duty to care’ by Donoghue v Stevenson in 1932, where Lord Atkin identified that a medical professional should treat their patient with reasonable care to avoid foreseeable injury to a ‘neighbour’ (Bryden & Storey, 2011). As stated by Bryden et al. (2011), when a duty of care is breached, circumstances of liabilities and negligence may arise. Malpractice Lawsuits According to Michon, (n.d.) the definition of medical malpractice cases can happen when a patient is harmed by a doctor or any other medical professional who fails to provide proper health care treatment. For example, prescribing a high dosage of opioids and oxycodone painkillers that resulted in a few deaths could lead you to face 30 years to life in prison. According to Myers on ABC News, (2016) Dr. Hsiu-Ying “Lisa” Tseng was convicted of second-degree...
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...(Ansel, 2014). Since they have gone through highly specialized training, they are expected to undertake new challenges by diving into practice areas they are unfamiliar with. One of these challenges is to try and avoid being held liable for professional negligence. A myriad of cases that involve RD is when he or she fails to act in a reasonable manner. In order to prove that negligence it is essential to know the main reason behind it. There could be many reasons such as the Registered Dietitian did not fulfill his or her duty to the patient; neglected the dietitian-patient relationship; or patient suffered extra harm due to receiving wrong information from their RD. It has been said that Registered Dietitian’s have been recent targets for malpractice lawsuits. According to Sharon Palmer, RD, who wrote an article back...
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...Medical Malpractice Everyone makes mistakes, but some are more deadly than others. Malpractice is the illegal or negligence, professional activity or they’re working out of the their scope of practice. Medical malpractice is one of the top causes of death in the United States. With this being said, insurance for medical practitioners would be considerably higher. Should the amount of malpractice insurance be lowered even though malpractice is one of the leading causes of death? The answer is yes, malpractice insurance should be lowered. Only 85,000 out of 225,000 people file a lawsuit against a malpractice (Nilsson, Traumatized). Medical malpractice is the 3rd highest cause of death (hopkinsmedicine.org). Just like a great deal of other things...
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..."First do no harm." These are the most well-known words in the Hippocratic Oath, underscoring just how important it is for medical clinicians to provide safe treatments and standards of care to their patients. When clinicians violate this duty, medical malpractice claims may be brought against them. At Bradshaw Law, LLC, attorney Denise Bradshaw is a medical malpractice lawyer who has been serving the Elko, Nevada, area for more than 20 years. Here, Attorney Bradshaw discusses three types of medical malpractice claims. Misdiagnosis/Delayed Diagnosis: A misdiagnosis occurs when a doctor wrongly diagnoses a patient's medical condition. Another form of misdiagnosis is a delayed diagnosis, in which a doctor waits too long to properly identify...
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...According to Collinge & Ayers (2004), “moral hazard lowers the price of healthcare for patients and thus causes the quantity demanded of healthcare to exceed the efficient quantity.” In contrast, the policy would save the government a lot of money. They would no longer provide Medicaid for the poor or Medicare for the elderly (Collinge & Ayers, p. 213). One of the most significant costs of modern medicine involves malpractice insurance. Should the government limit the amounts that juries are allowed to award victims of medical malpractice, so as to reduce malpractice insurance premiums and thereby lower healthcare costs? Limiting the amount juries are allowed to award a victim can impede their ability to care for themselves financially. Would you want your award limited to $15,000 and you were left paralyzed for the remainder of your life, resulting in not being able to earn a living? The amount of awards should be based on the situation. In addition, if the government were to enact universal coverage, there would likely be a rise in medical malpractice due to a decline in physician competition and patient surplus for those healthcare providers in demand. References Collinge, R.A., & Ayers, R.M. (2004). Economics by Design: Survey and Issues, Third...
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