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Physicians' fears of malpractice lawsuits are not assuaged by tort reforms

Emily R Carrier1, James D Reschovsky, Michelle M Mello

  • 1Center for Studying Health System Change, Washington, DC, USA. ecarrier@hschange.org

Health Affairs (Project Hope)
|September 8, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Physicians express high malpractice concern regardless of objective risk levels or tort reforms. Current policies may not effectively reduce these concerns, impacting healthcare costs.

Area of Science:

  • Health Policy
  • Medical Law
  • Healthcare Economics

Background:

  • Physicians often cite malpractice lawsuit threats as a driver of defensive medicine and increased healthcare costs.
  • Legislative tort reform efforts aim to mitigate these perceived risks and associated expenses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate physicians' perceptions of malpractice risk in relation to objective malpractice risk indicators.
  • To assess the impact of tort reform on physicians' malpractice concerns.

Main Methods:

  • Surveyed physicians' malpractice concerns across states with varying malpractice premiums and tort reform statuses.
  • Compared physician concerns against objective measures of malpractice risk.

Main Results:

  • High malpractice concern was prevalent even in states with low objective malpractice risk.
  • Physicians' concerns showed minimal differences between states with and without common tort reforms.

Conclusions:

  • Physicians' malpractice concerns may not align with objective risk indicators.
  • Existing tort reforms might have limited efficacy in alleviating physicians' malpractice concerns, potentially affecting healthcare cost-control strategies.

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