Saturday, May 28, 2011

Yet another new report on medical malpractice that does not support tort reformers' arguments

A few days ago, I posted a link to a new report on medical malpractice (here).  Here is another one: Public Citizen recently released a new study examining National Practitioner Data Bank data on medical malpractice the, once again, refutes many - if not all - of the typical arguments advanced by tort reformers.  Among many other things, the report concludes that for the seventh straight year, the number of medical malpractice payments made on behalf of doctors fell, hitting the lowest point on record and that the cumulative value of malpractice payments in 2010, when adjusted for inflation, was the lowest since the 1990 inception of the databank. In actual dollars, payments last year were the lowest since 1998.  The full report is available here.

Where is the litigation "explosion" that tort reformers claim is making the costs of health care rise?  Where are the runaway juries handing out outrageous verdicts in frivolous cases?  I am still waiting to see the evidence that supports those arguments...  If you know of any, please send it to me.  

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