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Medical Malpractice and Tort Reform Myths

By Ryan Bradley, Esq.

Proponents of tort reform and damage caps on malpractice cases would have you believe that these are steps to improving the health-care industry. They spread many myths and half-truths about how they are lowering costs and saving doctors. In reality all these measures do is tamper with the natural legal process and leave some severely injured people without the means to pay for their recovery.

Here are some of the biggest myths about medical malpractice reform:

Myth: The costs of malpractice insurance and the risk of potential lawsuits are decreasing the number of doctors by driving people away from the profession.

Fact: The number of doctors is increasing.

No matter what area of medicine you examine, the number of new doctors is increasing. The number of emergency room doctors has doubled since 1990 and is now approaching 30,000. The number of neurosurgeons is up 20 percent and the number of OB/GYNs is up 25 percent.

Myth: Caps on damages are needed because most malpractice payouts are undeserved, multi-million dollar awards.

Fact: Medical malpractice damages are not sky rocketing with most payouts nowhere close to the cap.

The idea that most malpractice lawsuits will pay out millions of dollars is simply not true. There are highly publicized exceptions where a plaintiff may receive a multi-million dollar award, but these amount to a small percentage of malpractice cases overall.

In Missouri, the median payout is $150,000, well below the limit. All the caps do is keep those people injured in exceptional cases from receiving enough to pay for their recovery.

Myth: Capping the payouts on malpractice cases will save doctors money on malpractice insurance.

Fact: The cost of malpractice insurance has increased in several states after damage caps were enacted.

In South Carolina, insurance companies raised their rates by as much as 22 percent mere months after damage caps were enacted. Texas insurers also sought to increase premiums after passing malpractice limits.

The idea that malpractice reform will save the medical industry much money at all is a stretch as the cost of litigation fees, payouts and insurance is less than half of one percent of the total health-care spending the U.S. Even if the limits worked the way tort reform advocates say, the benefit to the health-care industry would be miniscule.

Myth: The caps are high enough to cover the expenses of those wrongly injured.

Fact: In some cases of serious injury, the limit is not high enough.

As stated above, most of the malpractice claims are well below the limit. Sometimes, though, the limit is simply not enough to cover the costs of injuries that may affect someone the rest of their life. To arbitrarily place a limit on damages and leave some people without the means to recover is morally wrong.

To make matters worse, the damage caps in Missouri used to rise with inflation and income rates, but a bill in 2005 eliminated the need for the state to reassess the caps every year. As a result, the limit on malpractice awards has not risen since.

The only way to truly reduce medical costs is to reduce the number of actual malpractice injuries. This is done by making hospitals and doctors accountable for any injuries they cause and not by letting them off the hook in the most egregious of cases.

Full post as published by Missouri Accident Lawyer Blog on October 23, 2008 (boomark / email).