Report: Suits Don't Cause Higher Med Mal Premiums

NU Online News Service, March 11, 4:20 p.m. EST?Medical malpractice verdicts and settlements are not the cause for rising insurance premiums for Texas physicians and hospitals, a new report suggests.[@@]

The study, released this week by the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Illinois, pored over 150,000 insurance claims collected by the Texas Department of Insurance between 1988 and 2002.

Based on this data, the report concluded that medical malpractice premium hikes for Texas physicians are not caused by payments to patients who sue or even their attorneys.

The report's findings seem to argue against the measure that Texas adopted two years ago, which put a $250,000 cap on non-economic, pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice cases. A number of other states including California also have similar caps in place.

The study said it found no overall increases in the number of medical malpractice claims in Texas, their dollar amounts, or in jury verdicts against defendants after adjusting for inflation.

Further, the number of malpractice payments under $25,000 fell in the period from 1988 to 2002, while the number of payments bigger than $25,000 remained stable.

Other findings include the median jury verdicts in trials won by patients staying steady in 2002 at around $300,593?about the same level as in the 1990s.

The study also pointed out that overall payments to patients in 2002 were $515 million?only about 0.6 percent of health care spending in the state--a slight increase from 1990, when the figures were $414 million and 0.8 percent of health care spending.

These findings are similar to those reported by Americans for Insurance Reform, a New York-based coalition of public interest groups. Last October, Americans for Insurance Reform released a study suggesting that rising medical malpractice premiums in recent years could not be justified by actual insurance payouts. The report also said that inflation-adjusted payouts per doctor have fallen for the last two years.

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Report: Suits Don't Cause Higher Med Mal Premiums

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