A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that one in 14 doctors faces a malpractice suit every year. Also, just about every physician will face at least one malpractice lawsuit at one point in their career.
The study reports that although many suits are filed, few are successful. The patient wins only 22 percent of the time.
“The report doesn’t provide information that is surprising to those in the medical professional liability industry,” said Rob Francis, chief operating officer at The Doctors Company. “The frequency of claims does vary significantly by specialty, and the majority of claims are resolved in favor of the physician, pointing out the prevalence of frivolous claims. In our data, over 80 percent of claims are closed with no payment to plaintiffs.”
The study looked at data on 40,916 physicians who were insured for at least one year sometime between 1991 and 2005 by a single professional liability insurer.
The researchers were also able to look at the data by specialty, and they found the risk of being sued and the awards associated with losing varied considerably.
The physicians with the highest risk of being sued were neurosurgeons, with an annual risk of 19.1 percent, followed by thoracic-cardiovascular surgeons, with an annual risk of 18.9 percent, followed by general surgeons, with an annual risk of just less than 15.3 percent. The physicians with the lowest risk of being sued were pediatricians, with an annual risk of 3.1 percent, followed lastly buy psychiatrists, with an annual risk of 2.6 percent.
The physicians most likely to lose a malpractice case in any given year were general surgeons, 4 percent of whom lost a case annually.
Overall, the study authors said, 75 percent of physicians practicing in a low-risk specialty will have been sued by the time they are 65 years old, 19 percent will have made an indemnity payment. For those in the high risk specialties, 99 percent will have been sued by age 65, and 71 percent will have lost.
The average indemnity payment was $274,887 in 2008. But, there was a range, from a low of an average of about $110,000 for a claim against a dermatologist to a high of $520,924 for a claim against a pediatrician.
Obstetricians often pay the highest premiums for malpractice insurance of any specialty. According to figures from the federal government, from 2003, the average rate paid by an obstetrician/gynecologist was $64,000 a year, or more. That compared with $28,000 to $50,000 for a general surgeon, and $6,000 to $11,000 for an internist. In Florida, where malpractice premium rates tend to be the highest, an OB/GYN can pay over $100,000 a year, and sometimes more.
In recent years, as malpractice premiums have continued to rise, a number of states have enacted caps on malpractice awards. Twenty-seven states currently limit the amount that can be awarded for non-economic damages, usually to around $250,000, notably California and Texas.
Howard Lamb, chairman of Medicus Insurance Co., Austin, Texas, said that, when just about every physician is likely to be sued, tort reform and awards caps make a huge difference.
He said that in Texas, where tort reform was enacted in 2004, the number of cases filed have dropped by a half. “There appears to be a lot of difference,” Lamb said. “Texas is a good example.”
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* Article information provided by Insurance Journal West Region September 5, 2011
