A new update to The Center for Justice and Democracy’s "Briefing Book: Medical Malpractice By the Numbers," has just been released. This is the third update since the book was released and contains 110 pages of information regarding "medical malpractice litigation, health care costs and "defensive medicine," physician supply and access to health care, medical malpractice insurance, patient safety, and special problems for vets and military families." The following are some of the new statistics added to the book (from the Center for JD website):
- Medical malpractice insurance companies are making twice the profit of the entire property/casualty insurance industry. In fact, the med mal insurance industry has had seven years of underwriting profit - something completely unheard of in the property/casualty sector. (Page 53.)
- After Texas enacted severe limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, including "caps" on damages, rates of preventable errors rose, "consistent with hospitals gradually relaxing (or doing less to reinforce) patient safety standards." (Page 83.)
- When asked their main reason for leaving New York state, newly trained physicians cited the "Cost of Malpractice Insurance" practically dead last on a list of many factors, the most important of which was "Proximity to Family." Even the general category "Other" outranked "Cost of Malpractice Insurance." Moreover, New York's liability laws were not even mentioned as a factor. (Page 52.)
- Researchers have found, "a strong association between introduction of a comprehensive obstetric patient safety initiative and a dramatic reduction in liability claims and liability payments." (Page 24.)
- Medical malpractice premiums are not rising; other factors are contributing to the plight of physicians, specifically "health insurers that clamp down on the size of physician fees and deny payment for services that they deem unnecessary." (Page 56.)