No-fault compensation for medical injury: a case study

Changes in malpractice law remain an important goal of health care reform. Many state and federal legislators continue to call for measures that would limit the ability of injured patients to sue. There is also growing interest in alternatives to fault-based litigation. As legislators consider no-fault proposals, they can look to Florida's experience with the Neurological Injury Compensation Association (NICA), which for the past four years has been providing no-fault compensation for injured newborns. NICA provides some insights into the ways in which claims are generated, the nature of risk spreading, and the financial viability of a no-fault model.