National Costs Of The Medical Liability System
- 1 September 2010
- journal article
- Published by Health Affairs (Project Hope) in Health Affairs
- Vol. 29 (9), 1569-1577
- https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2009.0807
Abstract
Concerns about reducing the rate of growth of health expenditures have reignited interest in medical liability reforms and their potential to save money by reducing the practice of defensive medicine. It is not easy to estimate the costs of the medical liability system, however. This article identifies the various components of liability system costs, generates national estimates for each component, and discusses the level of evidence available to support the estimates. Overall annual medical liability system costs, including defensive medicine, are estimated to be $55.6 billion in 2008 dollars, or 2.4 percent of total health care spending.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Defensive Medicine and Tort Reform: A Wide ViewJournal of General Internal Medicine, 2010
- Is there empirical evidence for “Defensive Medicine”? A reassessmentJournal of Health Economics, 2009
- First Do No Harm? Tort Reform and Birth Outcomes*The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2008
- Malpractice Liability Costs And The Practice Of Medicine In The Medicare ProgramHealth Affairs, 2007
- Claims, Errors, and Compensation Payments in Medical Malpractice LitigationThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2006
- The Effect of Malpractice Liability on the Delivery of Health CareForum for Health Economics and Policy, 2005
- How liability law affects medical productivityJournal of Health Economics, 2002
- Do Doctors Practice Defensive Medicine?The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1996
- Physicians' Perceptions of the Risk of Being SuedJournal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 1992
- Medical Malpractice: Claims, Legal Costs, And The Practice Of Defensive MedicineHealth Affairs, 1984