Report: West Virginia, Louisiana Among States Most Affected by Medical Malpractice

West Virginia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Kansas and New Jersey were the U.S. states most affected by medical malpractice cases, a new report shows.

Forbes Legal gathered state data on the number of malpractice payments, the number of adverse action reports and cost-of-living adjusted payments per capita and ranked states in each category.

The new report, which covers more than $184 billion for medical malpractice cases in the U.S., shows medical malpractice payments were roughly $552 per capita in the U.S. West Virginia ranked first in the report, with payouts of more $1.5 billion during the years examined.

New York ranked first for the number of medical malpractice payments, but it ranked second to last for the number of adverse action reports per 100,000 residents.

Other takeaways from the data include:

• The total payments in New York were more than the next two states (California and Pennsylvania) combined.
• California and Texas had the lowest cost-of-living adjusted payment per capita values of the states on this list, but still made the top 10 due to their high respective populations.
• The top 10 states accounted for roughly $135 million of medical malpractice payments, while the top four states represent nearly half of all money spent on medical malpractice.