Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Medical Malpractice Cases

The continuation of the medical malpractice debate has brought to light certain medical malpractice cases involving severe injuries and limited payments because of capped awards. The claim by many doctors is that medical malpractice caps will bring down the skyrocketing insurance premiums, but consumer groups, families, and patients have argued otherwise. A medical malpractice bill that would limit damages to patients most severely harmed by medical errors is being voted on for the fifth time in the last 14 months even though it has already been rejected by the Senate three times.

Some states have already capped payments on medical malpractice cases and rulings have limited adequate compensation because of it. While trying to place blame on legal greed for premium increases, the caps so far instituted do not allow for consideration of varying levels of medical malpractice cases. Studies that were conducted in California, Florida, North Carolina, New York, and Ohio have found there is a lack of evidence that supports claims that jury verdicts have inconsistent relationships between the severity of the injury and the monetary verdict.

Consumer groups have instead questioned the failure to more closely scrutinize the way the system is, meaning focusing more on patient safety and disciplining the small percentage of doctors that have been found to account for the majority of medical malpractice cases payouts. As the system is now, less than 0.5 percent of the nation's doctors will ever be penalized with serious state sanctions. Making sure the five percent of doctors found to be responsible for 54 percent of malpractice payouts in the U.S. do not continue to be responsible for any more instances of malpractice could substantially reduce any potential medical malpractice cases.

Arguing frivolous lawsuits also appears to be inaccurate for several reasons, based on some reports and numbers. In addition to the fact that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners thinks the spike in medical liability premiums are the result of the insurance cycle and not new medical malpractice cases or skyrocketed jury verdicts, ten times more claims will be dropped before they are ever even pursued. Patients abandon about 54 percent of claims based on estimates from Physician Insurer Association of America figures. Of those claims that do become medical malpractice cases, classifying them as frivolous has been disputed.

When researchers at the American Society of Anesthesiologists arranged for pairs of doctors to review 103 randomly selected medical negligence claim files, the observations indicated neutral experts commonly disagree with their reviews when using the accepted standard of reasonable and prudent care. While instances of medical malpractice are not in the majority of times an intentional or malicious act, patients have still been harmed and deserve to be compensated for the tragic occurrence. Some patients will suffer life-altering injuries, which deserve a fair medical malpractice case hearing.

Medical malpractice payouts are less than one percent of total U.S. health care costs.

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