Estimating the Effect of Damages Caps in Medical Malpractice Cases

Estimating the Effect of Damages Caps in Medical Malpractice Cases PDF Author: David A. Hyman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
Using claim-level data, we estimate the effect of Texas's 2003 cap on non-economic damages on jury verdicts, post-verdict payouts, and settlements in medical malpractice cases closed during 1988-2004. For pro-plaintiff jury verdicts, the cap affects 47 percent of verdicts, and reduces mean allowed non-economic damages, mean allowed verdict, and mean total payout by 73 percent, 38 percent, and 27 percent, respectively. In total, the non-econ cap reduces adjusted verdicts by $156M, but predicted payouts by only $60M. The impact on payouts is smaller because a substantial portion of the above-cap damage awards were not being paid to begin with. In cases settled without trial, the non-econ cap affects 18 percent of cases and reduces predicted mean total payout) by 18 percent. The non-econ cap has a smaller impact on settled cases than tried cases because settled cases tend to involve smaller payouts. The impact of the non-econ cap varies across plaintiff categories. Deceased, unemployed, and (likely) elderly plaintiffs suffer a larger percentage reduction in payouts than living, employed, and non-elderly plaintiffs. We also simulate the effects of different caps, and find substantial differences in cap stringency across states. Different caps reduce aggregate payouts in tried cases (all cases) by between 16 percent and 65 percent (7 percent and 42 percent). Caps on total damages have especially large effects.

Estimating the Effect of Damages Caps in Medical Malpractice Cases

Estimating the Effect of Damages Caps in Medical Malpractice Cases PDF Author: David A. Hyman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
Using claim-level data, we estimate the effect of Texas's 2003 cap on non-economic damages on jury verdicts, post-verdict payouts, and settlements in medical malpractice cases closed during 1988-2004. For pro-plaintiff jury verdicts, the cap affects 47 percent of verdicts, and reduces mean allowed non-economic damages, mean allowed verdict, and mean total payout by 73 percent, 38 percent, and 27 percent, respectively. In total, the non-econ cap reduces adjusted verdicts by $156M, but predicted payouts by only $60M. The impact on payouts is smaller because a substantial portion of the above-cap damage awards were not being paid to begin with. In cases settled without trial, the non-econ cap affects 18 percent of cases and reduces predicted mean total payout) by 18 percent. The non-econ cap has a smaller impact on settled cases than tried cases because settled cases tend to involve smaller payouts. The impact of the non-econ cap varies across plaintiff categories. Deceased, unemployed, and (likely) elderly plaintiffs suffer a larger percentage reduction in payouts than living, employed, and non-elderly plaintiffs. We also simulate the effects of different caps, and find substantial differences in cap stringency across states. Different caps reduce aggregate payouts in tried cases (all cases) by between 16 percent and 65 percent (7 percent and 42 percent). Caps on total damages have especially large effects.

The Impact of the 2003 Texas Medical Malpractice Damages Cap on Physician Supply and Insurer Payouts

The Impact of the 2003 Texas Medical Malpractice Damages Cap on Physician Supply and Insurer Payouts PDF Author: Charles Silver
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Physicians
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Does Malpractice Liability Keep the Doctor Away? Evidence from Tort Reform Damage Caps

Does Malpractice Liability Keep the Doctor Away? Evidence from Tort Reform Damage Caps PDF Author: David A. Matsa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Many U.S. states limit awards for non-economic damages in malpractice cases. Proponents often argue that such tort reform increases physician supply and access to care. However, the degree to which marginal changes in malpractice liability affect physician supply is theoretically ambiguous. If patients bear the full incidence of cost changes and market demand is inelastic, then tort reform will not affect physicians' net income or location decisions. I use county-level, specialty-specific annual counts of physicians from 1970 to 2000 to estimate the effect of damage caps on physician supply. The results suggest that caps do not affect physician supply for the average resident of states adopting reforms. On the other hand, caps appear to increase the supply of frontier rural, specialist physicians by 10-12 percent. This is likely because rural doctors face greater uninsured litigation costs and a more elastic demand for medical services.

Defensive Medicine and Medical Malpractice

Defensive Medicine and Medical Malpractice PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Defensive medicine
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice PDF Author: Patricia Munch Danzon
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674561151
Category : Insurance, Malpractice
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
How often are patients seriously injured through faulty medical care? And what proportion of these people receive compensation for their injuries and suffering? This is the first book that tries to answer these questions in a careful, scholarly way. Among its important findings is that at most one in ten patients injured through medical negligence receives compensation through the malpractice system. The focus of public attention has been on the rising cost to physicians of malpractice insurance. Although Patricia Danzon analyzes this question thoroughly, her view is much broader, encompassing the malpractice system itself--the legal process, the liability insurance markets, and the feedback to health care. As an economist, she is concerned with the efficiency or cost-effectiveness of the system from the point of view of its three social purposes: deterrence of medical negligence, compensation of injured patients, and the spreading of risk. To provide evidence of the operation of the system in practice, to distinguish fact from allegation, and to evaluate proposals for reform, she has undertaken a detailed empirical analysis of malpractice claims and insurance markets. It is a major contribution to our understanding of how the system works in practice and how it might be improved.

A Measure of Malpractice

A Measure of Malpractice PDF Author: Paul C. Weiler
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674558809
Category : Insurance, Physicians' liability
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
A Measure of Malpractice tells the story and presents the results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study, the largest and most comprehensive investigation ever undertaken of the performance of the medical malpractice system. The Harvard study was commissioned by the government of New York in 1986, in the midst of a malpractice crisis that had driven insurance premiums for surgeons and obstetricians in New York City to nearly $200,000 a year. The Harvard-based team of doctors, lawyers, economists, and statisticians set out to investigate what was actually happening to patients in hospitals and to doctors in courtrooms, launching a far more informed debate about the future of medical liability in the 1990s. Careful analysis of the medical records of 30,000 patients hospitalized in 1984 showed that approximately one in twenty-five patients suffered a disabling medical injury, one quarter of these as a result of the negligence of a doctor or other provider. After assembling all the malpractice claims filed in New York State since 1975, the authors found that just one in eight patients who had been victims of negligence actually filed a malpractice claim, and more than two-thirds of these claims were filed by the wrong patients. The study team then interviewed injured patients in the sample to discover the actual financial loss they had experienced: the key finding was that for roughly the same dollar amount now being spent on a tort system that compensates only a handful of victims, it would be possible to fund comprehensive disability insurance for all patients significantly disabled by a medical accident. The authors, who came to the project from very different perspectives about the present malpractice system, are now in agreement about the value of a new model of medical liability. Rather than merely tinker with the current system which fixes primary legal responsibility on individual doctors who can be proved medically negligent, legislatures should encourage health care organizations to take responsibility for the financial losses of all patients injured in their care.

The Economic Effects of the Liability System

The Economic Effects of the Liability System PDF Author: Daniel P. Kessler
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
ISBN: 9780817959623
Category : Insurance, Liability
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective

Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective PDF Author: Ken Oliphant
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110270234
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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Book Description
The papers in this collection are drawn from a symposium held in Vienna in December 2010. Organised by the Institute for European Tort Law and the Chicago-Kent Law Review, in collaboration with the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law, the conference drew together legal experts from 14 national or regional systems across six continents. Medical malpractice and compensation for medical injuries are issues which regularly create tension and innovation in national legal systems but the analysis of these areas is often limited to national audiences. This study examines the issues in a uniquely global context, demonstrating the breadth of approaches currently taken around the world and revealing key areas of tension and the likely direction of future developments. Wherever possible, the analysis is supported by reference to empirical data. The 14 legal systems covered in the collection are Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Scandinavia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. A general comparative introduction completes the collection.

The Cost of the Medical Liability System Proposals for Reform, Including H.R. 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011

The Cost of the Medical Liability System Proposals for Reform, Including H.R. 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011 PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Health
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medical care
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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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