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News and briefs: Medical malpractice payments hit low in 2011

Credentialing Resource Center Insider, July 20, 2012

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For the eighth consecutive year, medical malpractice payments by physicians decreased, reaching its lowest level since 1991. This is according to the watchdog group, Public Citizen, who used data from the National Practitioner’s Data Bank of physicians reporting malpractice payouts. Both the actual number of payments made by physicians and the amount paid out (with inflation factored in) were at their lowest levels in 2011.

Public Citizen found no evidence that the decrease in malpractice claims is due to better care. According to the study, about 9,500 malpractice claims were paid by physicians; yet the Department of Health and Human Services reported that over 700,000 Medicare patients suffer serious injuries from avoidable medical errors.

“The juxtaposition of declining medical malpractice payments and skyrocketing medical costs exposes bogus claims that reducing patients’ access to legal remedies will reduce costs. The only sensible response is for policymakers and physicians to dedicate themselves to pursuing patient safety to prevent these injuries and deaths with the same vigor with which they have previously sought to restrict patients’ legal rights,” says Christine Hines, consumer and civil justice counsel with Public Citizen, in a press release on its website.
 

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