An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on Medical Malpractice Settlement Payments

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on Medical Malpractice Settlement Payments PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Actions and defenses
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This study evaluates the impact of six different types of tort reforms on the frequency, size and number of total annual settlements in medical malpractice cases between 1991 and 1998. Previous studies have failed to correctly identify the effective dates of reforms, to account for the retroactive applicability of striking down reforms, or used highly selected samples of jury verdicts or litigated cases. I employ a new legal data set of tort reforms, which carefully evaluates effective dates as well as when certain laws were overturned. Medical malpractice data comes from the National Practitioner Data Bank, which contains more than 100,000 malpractice settlement payments in the study time frame. The data represent the universe of cases in which doctors paid a positive settlement. Thus, the present study has significant advantages over previous work for being the first study to systematically and adequately explore the impact of tort reform on settlements (in contrast to judgments). Of the six tort reforms examined, two reforms (caps on pain-and-suffering damages and limitations on joint and several liability) reduced the number of annual payments, and two reforms (caps on pain-and-suffering damages and the periodic payment reform) reduced average awards. Caps on non-economic damages had an effect on total annual payments, although the statistical significance of that effect was weak. The joint effect of enacting all six reforms was statistically significant for reducing the number of cases but not the state level average award or total payments.

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on Medical Malpractice Settlement Payments

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on Medical Malpractice Settlement Payments PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Actions and defenses
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This study evaluates the impact of six different types of tort reforms on the frequency, size and number of total annual settlements in medical malpractice cases between 1991 and 1998. Previous studies have failed to correctly identify the effective dates of reforms, to account for the retroactive applicability of striking down reforms, or used highly selected samples of jury verdicts or litigated cases. I employ a new legal data set of tort reforms, which carefully evaluates effective dates as well as when certain laws were overturned. Medical malpractice data comes from the National Practitioner Data Bank, which contains more than 100,000 malpractice settlement payments in the study time frame. The data represent the universe of cases in which doctors paid a positive settlement. Thus, the present study has significant advantages over previous work for being the first study to systematically and adequately explore the impact of tort reform on settlements (in contrast to judgments). Of the six tort reforms examined, two reforms (caps on pain-and-suffering damages and limitations on joint and several liability) reduced the number of annual payments, and two reforms (caps on pain-and-suffering damages and the periodic payment reform) reduced average awards. Caps on non-economic damages had an effect on total annual payments, although the statistical significance of that effect was weak. The joint effect of enacting all six reforms was statistically significant for reducing the number of cases but not the state level average award or total payments.

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on Medical Malpractice Payments

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on Medical Malpractice Payments PDF Author: Ronen Avraham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Damages
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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An Empirical Study of the Effects of Tort Reforms on the Rate of Tort Filings

An Empirical Study of the Effects of Tort Reforms on the Rate of Tort Filings PDF Author: Han-Duck Lee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law reform
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Impact of Legal Reforms on Medical Malpractice Costs

Impact of Legal Reforms on Medical Malpractice Costs PDF Author:
Publisher: Congress
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Medical Malpractice Litigation

Medical Malpractice Litigation PDF Author: Bernard S. Black
Publisher: Cato Institute
ISBN: 194864780X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
"Drawing on an unusually rich trove of data, the authors have refuted more politically convenient myths in one book than most academics do in a lifetime." —Nicholas Bagley, professor of law, University of Michigan Law School "Synthesizing decades of their own and others’ research on medical liability, the authors unravel what we know and don’t know about our medical malpractice system, why neither patients nor doctors are being rightly served, and what economics can teach us about the path forward." —Anupam B. Jena, Harvard Medical School Over the past 50 years, the United States experienced three major medical malpractice crises, each marked by dramatic increases in the cost of malpractice liability insurance. These crises fostered a vigorous politicized debate about the causes of the premium spikes, and the impact on access to care and defensive medicine. State legislatures responded to the premium spikes by enacting damages caps on non-economic, punitive, or total damages and Congress has periodically debated the merits of a federal cap on damages. However, the intense political debate has been marked by a shortage of evidence, as well as misstatements and overclaiming. The public is confused about answers to some basic questions. What caused the premium spikes? What effect did tort reform actually have? Did tort reform reduce frivolous litigation? Did tort reform actually improve access to health care or reduce defensive medicine? Both sides in the debate have strong opinions about these matters, but their positions are mostly talking points or are based on anecdotes. Medical Malpractice Litigation provides factual answers to these and other questions about the performance of the med mal system. The authors, all experts in the field and from across the political spectrum, provide an accessible, fact-based response to the questions ordinary Americans and policymakers have about the performance of the med mal litigation system.

Assessing the Effects of Tort Reforms

Assessing the Effects of Tort Reforms PDF Author: Stephen J. Carroll
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurance, Liability
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
This report offers a framework for assessing the effects of tort reforms. It attempts to provide a coherent structure for systematically thinking about how research can contribute to the policy debate over tort reform. It identifies four basic policy issues critical to assessing the effects of tort reforms on the tort system: (1) how soon we can expect to see effects of reforms; (2) whether reforms have affected the outcomes of disputes; (3) who won, who lost, and how much; and (4) whether reforms have affected economic behavior. The author points out that the kinds of data needed to assess the effects of reform are generally not available, and suggests that three types of new data collection systems need to be considered: (1) systematic efforts to obtain data from insurers and self-insured defendants on the aggregate outcomes of liability claims; (2) special surveys of claimants, the bar, and insurers to obtain the detailed individual claim information needed to identify the winners and losers in the reformed system; and (3) systems for collecting information both on the other factors that affect the behavior of participants in the tort system, and on economic outcomes and injuries.

Research Handbook on the Economics of Torts

Research Handbook on the Economics of Torts PDF Author: Jennifer Arlen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1781006172
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 668

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Book Description
Focusing on issues of vital importance to those seeking to understand and reform the tort system, this volume takes a multi-disciplinary approach, including theoretical economic analysis, empirical analysis, socio-economic analysis, and behavioral anal

The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers' Ultimate Losses

The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers' Ultimate Losses PDF Author: Patricia Born
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurance companies
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
Examines the effects of tort reforms on the losses of insurance companies that write medical malpractice policies, by analysis of the companies' annual reports to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 1984-2003.

Medical Malpractice Litigation and Tort Reform

Medical Malpractice Litigation and Tort Reform PDF Author: David A. Hyman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Health care providers and tort reformers claim that the medical malpractice litigation system is rife with behaviors that are irrational, unpredictable, and counter-productive. They attack civil juries, asserting that verdicts are skyrocketing without reason, are highly variable, and bear little or no relation to the merits of plaintiffs' claims. They complain about patients, arguing that the few with valid claims sue rarely, while the many who receive non-negligent treatment sue all the time. They attack greedy lawyers, alleging that they rake in obscene profits by routinely filing frivolous complaints. Many of the preceding claims are facially implausible. The medical malpractice liability system is an enormous market whose principal trading partners - trial lawyers and liability insurers - are sophisticated, economically-oriented repeat players. They run the system, and they have the knowledge and incentives to select efficient means to accomplish their respective ends. Given this backdrop, their behavior and the behavior of the system they administer should not be random, or even particularly hard to explain. Nor, given the absence of market power and barriers to entry, should attorneys earn more than market-driven returns on the services they provide. Most of the preceding claims are also inconsistent with empirical studies of the medical malpractice liability system. These studies depict a system that is stable and predictable, that sorts valid from invalid claims reasonably well, and that responds mainly to changes in the frequency of errors and the cost of dealing with them. The system does have a number of pathologies, however, including its loading costs, the snail's pace at which it processes claims, and its failure to compensate patients injured by medical negligence as fully and as often as it should. It is possible to reform the liability system to address these shortcomings, but tort reform proposals like caps on non-economic damages and attorneys fees will not do so. The goal of these proposals is to reduce insurance prices by making the system less remunerative for claimants. If implemented, these measures will predictably worsen the problem of under-compensation, and weaken providers' incentives to protect patients from avoidable perils.

Accounting for Anticipation Effects: An Application to Medical Malpractice Tort Reform

Accounting for Anticipation Effects: An Application to Medical Malpractice Tort Reform PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description