By Hootsbuddy
David Harlow said so.
Costs of Medical Negligence to Patients� Between 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die in hospitals each year due to preventable medical errors.
� The annual costs to society for medical errors in hospitals at $17 billion to $29 billion.
� The total amount spent on medical malpractice insurance in 2000 was $6.4 billion � at least three to five times less than the Institute of Medicine�s estimate of the costs of malpractice to society.Frequency of Medical Malpractice Claims
� Only one in eight preventable medical errors committed in hospitals results in a malpractice claim.
� From 1996 through 1999, Florida hospitals reported 19,885 incidents but only 3,177 medical malpractice claims. In other words, for every 6 medical errors only 1 claim is filed.
� The number of new medical malpractice claims declined by about four percent between 1995 and 2000. There were 90,212 claims filed in 1995 and 86,480 claims filed in 2000.
� Punitive Damages are awarded in less than 1 percent of medical malpractice cases.Physicians� Costs of Medical Malpractice Insurance
� Malpractice insurance costs amount to only 3.2 percent of the average physician's revenues.
� The median medical malpractice payout by a physician to a patient rose 35 percent from 1997 to 2000, from $100,000 to $135,000. But during the same time, the average premium for single health insurance coverage has increased by 39 percent.Medical Malpractice Award Trends
� The size of damage awards has been steady since 1991. The mean payout was $135,941 in 2001, up 8.7 percent from $125,000 in 2000. Over ten years, malpractice payouts have grown an average of 6.2 percent per year. That�s almost exactly the rate of medical inflation: an average of 6.7 percent between 1990 and 2001.
� Malpractice payouts by physicians and their insurers were a mere $4.5 billion in 2001 � less than 1 percent of the country�s overall health care costs of $1.4 trillion.
� In 2001, only 895 out of 16,676 payouts, or about 5 percent, topped $1 million.Insurance Industry Economics Have Caused the Premium Price Spike
� "For several years, insurers kept prices artificially low while competing for market share and new revenue to invest in a booming stock market. As the bull market surged, investments by these historically conservative insurers rose to 10.6% in 1999, up from a more typical 3% in 1992. With the market now in a slump, the insurers can no longer use investment gains to subsidize low rates." (AMA Report 35 of the Board of Trustees (A-02)
� Premiums charged do not track losses paid, but instead rise and fall in concert with the state of the economy. When the economy is booming and investment returns are high, companies maintain premiums at modest levels; however, when the economy falters and interest rates fall, companies increase premiums in response.Small Number of Dangerous Doctors Commit Most Malpractice
� Only 5 percent of doctors (1 out of 20) are responsible for 54 percent of malpractice payouts.
� Only 8 percent of doctors (1 out of 12) with 2 or more malpractice payouts have been disciplined by their state medical board.
All that and more at Public Citizen.
Just saying...
Most of the money payed out is to cover the medical costs that resulted from the malpractice. That would be eliminated by a single payer system.
ReplyDeleteThose stats give great perspective on the issue. However I think the fear physicians have is real, it just might not be realistic.
ReplyDeleteWhat those figures don't necessarily show is the fact that some specialties have much higher premiums and payouts than others, because of the nature of the work. That 3.2% of revenue figure is not close to what the docs in my practice pay. We're running about 7%, with a clean claims history and a good risk management program in place! That's not an insignificant figure.
With that said, I don't think the premiums are the main reason physicians are calling for tort reform. I think they just want to get rid of that nagging fear. I'm not even sure if tort reform will completely do the job, because they will still have something in the back of their mind telling them that a simple mistake could injure or kill someone. Imagine being in that line of work!
Didn't you catch that part about the disconnect between premiums and payouts?
ReplyDeleteIt is the insurance norm to jack up premiums in times of fear, anticipating future needs, knowing that (a) they can get away with it and (b) if those fears never materialize they improved their revenue stream so there is no need to adjust downward "just in case."
When the Gulf storms wreak havoc and destruction is dramatic, those are the times when the insurance people uptick premiums. Everyone "understands" you know.
They have abundant resources for claims, but no one would ever guess. When is the last time you heard of an insurance company going broke?
I received an EOB just yesterday showing that my Mom's supplemental insurance FINALLY got around to paying a hospital bill from last December. She passed away in January, and what it it now, eight months after her hospitalization? They got plenty of use of that money for most of 2009 before they let go.
If I had to guess, I would say that premiums are higher for specialists for two simple reasons: they are the ones most afraid and (lucky for insurance) the most able to pay.
You're right about the fear part. Fear is the instrument of torture now in the hands of both the insurance and pharmaceutical opponents to change. The president was right when he said we are caught between fear and hope.