Employers' liability risk for managed care injuries

Concerns about employer liability are a major public policy barrier to expanding tort liability for managed health care organizations. To evaluate the extent of these legal concerns, interviews were conducted with key informants, selected to represent a range of legal and demographic characteristics nationwide. These subjects reported a low level of existing concern about liability arising from managed health care, and few indicated that an increase in this threat would likely cause them to drop health benefits. Instead, most said employers would take a wait-and-see approach to theoretical liability threats and would consider responses short of dropping coverage, such as switching to fully insured health benefits, or from defined benefits to defined contributions.