Saturday, January 21, 2006
Can damage caps influence premium growth and physician supply?
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The Impact of Caps on Damages: How are Markets for Medical Liability Insurance and Medical Services Affected?
"[This report] provides a summary of research on the impact of caps including those on punitive and total damages in addition to those that apply only to non-economic damages. Our focus is on those papers that employ statistical techniques to control for potentially competing explanations of changes that are observed when simple descriptive statistics are used."
and concludes
"the body of research on the impacts of tort reform shows that caps have resulted in lower growth in medical liability losses in states that passed caps than in states that did not. The more recent literature on premium effects has found that caps result in lower premium growth. And, two very recent papers based on sufficiently many years of the AMAâs Masterfile data have found that non-economic caps and direct tort reforms more generally have a positive effect on the number of physicians per capita in a state."
Insurance Profits Don't Explain Malpractice Crisis
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The American Medical Association has released a new article which takes to task the so-called 'Angoff Report' which claimed that the medical liability insurance crisis is caused by insurance companies booming profits, overcharging physicians for coverage, and ballooning surpluses. It refers to two subsequent analyses which point up the flaws in the approach used by Angoff. Revised analysis shows the growth rate of insurance company surpluses was only 3.9% per year, and they were profitable in only one year (2004) when they made 5%
Thursday, December 22, 2005
More on why anesthesia is (or is not) safer
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Walter Olson responded to my earlier post and I feel I need to clarify what I meant. I thank him for pointing out (gently) the error of my words.
First off, I trained in the early 1990's after the advent of improved monitoring such as pulse oximetry and end tidal gas monitoring. My statement that 'overdose risk is not and was never a cause of patient morbidity and mortality in my field' was overly broad and, as Olson points out, incorrect.
The point I tried to make (though not well) was that overdose is not something we presently worry about and does not explain the apparent increase in awareness under anesthesia. What can explain it (in part) is the use of muscle paralyzing drugs (even when they are not absolutely necessary) often together with medical errors such as empty vaporizers (inhaled anesthetic delivery source), incorrectly installed vaporizers, or other human error.
Though Google turns up many hits on anesthesia and overdose, these tend to be written by non-anesthesiologists for the lay public and should not be taken as evidence that anesthetic overdoses is a cause of malpractice claims (though, admittedly, it is a term that most juries readily understand)
Walter, if you're reading this, I'd love to be able to read more about how the legal system portrays us during trials. Any pointers?
Misconceptions about why anesthesia is safer
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Walter Olson has taught me much about the legal system as it pertains to medicine via the PointOfLaw forum. I have to take exception with a post made today however. In pointing to an article that considers whether the lessons of patient safety in anesthesiology are generalizable to other fields of medicine, he writes:
"Incidentally, because anesthesiologists are now more vigilant than ever not to court an overdose risk by giving patients any more than the minimum they need, there is apparently a rising incidence of the phenomenon of "anesthesia awareness", in which underdosed patients are actually aware of the surgery in progress and perhaps end up undergoing psychological trauma as a result. So what happens next? You guessed it."
Overdose risk is not and was never a cause of patient morbidity and mortality in my field. Second, it is not at all clear whether the 'rising incidence of the phenomenon of anesthesia awareness' is anything but a) better reporting (i.e. you don't find what you don't look for) b) realization among patients that there's something else they can sue for or c) an effort by one medical device company which makes depth of anesthesia monitors to panic hospitals and anesthesia groups into buying their product (a product which, by the way, has not been shown to decrease the incidence of awareness).
The specialty is actively engaged in evaluating this 'problem' with the same approach it has used to improve patient safety in other areas such as airway management and positioning injuries.
Friday, July 1, 2005
Med Mal Costs 2004
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Med Mal Costs 2004:
"Where is the most expensive place to defend oneself against malpractice in 2004? Florida is tops and Wyoming is the least expensive."
Hmmm. From the summary, it looks like my state (Pennsylvania) is 5th for costs incurred...
[Via PointOfLaw Forum]
How to survive a deposition
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"Malpractice: How to survive a deposition"
"Be concise, be cool, be prepared, and don't try to outwit the plaintiff's attorney."
[Via Overlawyered]
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Malpractice Insurance for Bariatric Surgeons Increasing
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Other Perils of Overweight - New York Times:
" But after several years in which the surgery was seen as the last best hope by many obese people, a growing array of scientific data shows that the risks are greater than patients realized. One new study reported that almost one in 5 patients had complications after surgery. For one in 20 patients, the complications were serious, including heart attacks and strokes. Another recent study said the mortality rate for the most common type of bariatric surgery, gastric bypass, was one in 200 - a rate higher than for coronary angioplasty, which opens blocked heart vessels.
For thousands of patients, the weight-loss surgery has eliminated debilitating diseases and improved the quality of life. But the threat of malpractice lawsuits against doctors and hospitals, as well as the reluctance of health plans to cover the surgery costs, is creating difficulties for people now seeking treatment. "
The article points to an Annals of Internal Medicine article titled Meta-Analysis: Surgical Treatment of Obesity (Annals is another one of those nice free full-text journals).
[Via Common Good]
Friday, May 27, 2005
Medical Malpractice Law in the United States - Kaiser Family Foundation
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Medical Malpractice Law in the United States - Kaiser Family Foundation:
" The Kaiser Family Foundation today issued a new report that explains how medical malpractice law in the United States works and provides an overview of recent trends and reform approaches. The Foundation also posted state-specific data on medical malpractice claim payments on statehealthfacts.org, the free online source of current health and health policy data for all 50 states. "
Saturday, May 7, 2005
25 Years and a 1288% Increase in Malpractice Premiums
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"...losses paid out per doctor rose much faster than premiums paid per doctor (1288% vs. 312%), or medical care inflation (480%), from 1975-2001 (see this graph). After 2001, when med-mal insurers were exiting the market in response to this reality, insurance regulators permitted substantial premium price increases that began to correct for these imbalances (though far from fully -- really returning medical malpractice paid-loss ratios to 1995 levels, which were still 150% higher than they were in 1975). It is an unavoidable fact that the exceptional growth in losses paid per doctor over time explains medical malpractice premium growth..."
[via PointofLaw.com]
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
House Bill Would Fund Special Health Courts
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"Known as the Medical Liability Procedural Reform Act of 2005, HR 1546 would authorize grants to as many as seven states to establish special health courts to restore reliability to medical justice. The hallmark of the courts would be full-time judges with health care expertise, whose sole focus would be on addressing medical malpractice cases. Each participating state would be required to report on the effectiveness of the health courts, and the U.S. Attorney General would be required to hire a research organization to evaluate them."
Via [Common Good]
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Malpractice Insurance Summary for PA
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The Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care, an advocacy group supporting medical liability reform, has a has an accurate summary of the malpractice insurance situation in Pennsylvania (and other states in the Union).
"A full 80% of medical students who come to Pennsylvania for a world-class education ultimately choose to practice elsewhere, according to the Pennsylvania Medical Society. (PA Medical Society, June 17, 2003)"
[Via PointOfLaw Forum]
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Malpractice Payouts in Pennsylvania Rose in 2004
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Malpractice Payouts in Pennsylvania Rose in 2004:
"In 2004, insurers reported paying out $448 million, a 13.5 percent jump from $394.5 million reported in 2003, according to the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration. The 2004 figure broke the previous record, which had been set in 2001.
The increase in 2004 came after two years of decline. One researcher said he thinks payouts are climbing steadily, but that the steep increase in 2004 also was bumped up by delayed reporting of some payments made the previous year."
[Via Point of Law Forum]
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Frist Indicates Willingness To Compromise With Democrats on Malpractice Legislation
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Kaisernetwork.org--Frist Indicates Willingness To Compromise With Democrats on Malpractice Legislation:
" Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Thursday said he would again push for medical malpractice legislation this session and indicated that he would consider compromises with Democrats to examine the "elements of insurance reform" in addition to establishing caps on noneconomic damages awards, CongressDaily reports. Republicans have been unsuccessful in passing legislation that would impose a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages because of Democratic filibusters. Democrats maintain that rising medical malpractice insurance premiums stem from problems within the insurance industry. Frist suggested that he might be willing to reconsider the $250,000 limit but added, "There absolutely should be a cap." According to Frist, medical malpractice reform will be considered in the Senate after bankruptcy and other tort reform legislation, including changes to the asbestos litigation system, are addressed (Heil, CongressDaily, 3/10). "
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Dec Feb
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