Ok, I must be completely dumb or just missing the boat on this one. Since when can you tie malpractice payouts to the cost of healthcare? Isn’t malpractice payouts based on the presumed injury to the patient and loss of income potential and damages? I don’t see the link. This is just another smokescreen by the attorneys to try and shift the blame elsewhere. Nowhere in the article does it mention insurer expenses to fight these claims. Only mentions the payout totals.
This study totally ignores the fact that the cost of settlements has been driven through the roof by the sky high awards in the few cases that do get tried and result in verdicts for the plaintiffs. This is all too typical of most all studies re medical malpractice. They tend to be flawed if only because they lack data about the payouts in 96% of all cases, ie the ones that are settled short of trial. NB
The reason why medical costs are important is that, on average, a significant percentage of a med mal payout is going to be for medical treatment to help correct the damage caused by the physician’s error.
Flaw #1:
Lawsuits take years to settle. The vast majority of those suits settled between 1991 and 2002 were probably filed between 1985 and 1996. Settlements for more recent cases will tell a far different tale.
Flaw #2:
Health care costs aren’t a good measure of comparison, since malpractice costs are implicitly included in healthcare costs.
Flaw #3:
Capped states aren’t distinguished from non capped states.
Studies are like opinions, everybody has one. To draw conclusions on agregate data and then apply it to individual states is not productive. The significant increases in cost were do to poor underwriting and pricing practices over several years, agents in years past willing to sell the policies that were underpriced and poorly underwritten, healthcare professionals buying the lowest quote when they knew it was below losses;all follwed by a violent course correction and whining by those who particpated in driving the industry into the ground in the first place. All of us. Better law and caps to minimize lottery payouts would help, managing our industry better would prevent the chaos in the first place.
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Ok, I must be completely dumb or just missing the boat on this one. Since when can you tie malpractice payouts to the cost of healthcare? Isn’t malpractice payouts based on the presumed injury to the patient and loss of income potential and damages? I don’t see the link. This is just another smokescreen by the attorneys to try and shift the blame elsewhere. Nowhere in the article does it mention insurer expenses to fight these claims. Only mentions the payout totals.
This study totally ignores the fact that the cost of settlements has been driven through the roof by the sky high awards in the few cases that do get tried and result in verdicts for the plaintiffs. This is all too typical of most all studies re medical malpractice. They tend to be flawed if only because they lack data about the payouts in 96% of all cases, ie the ones that are settled short of trial. NB
Compman,
The reason why medical costs are important is that, on average, a significant percentage of a med mal payout is going to be for medical treatment to help correct the damage caused by the physician’s error.
Flaw #1:
Lawsuits take years to settle. The vast majority of those suits settled between 1991 and 2002 were probably filed between 1985 and 1996. Settlements for more recent cases will tell a far different tale.
Flaw #2:
Health care costs aren’t a good measure of comparison, since malpractice costs are implicitly included in healthcare costs.
Flaw #3:
Capped states aren’t distinguished from non capped states.
Fat ticks on slim hounds
Studies are like opinions, everybody has one. To draw conclusions on agregate data and then apply it to individual states is not productive. The significant increases in cost were do to poor underwriting and pricing practices over several years, agents in years past willing to sell the policies that were underpriced and poorly underwritten, healthcare professionals buying the lowest quote when they knew it was below losses;all follwed by a violent course correction and whining by those who particpated in driving the industry into the ground in the first place. All of us. Better law and caps to minimize lottery payouts would help, managing our industry better would prevent the chaos in the first place.