Tort Liability: A Minefield for Managed Care?

Tort Liability: a Minefield for Managed Care?

The restructuring of health insurance contracts and health care delivery systems under managed care is the result of competitive attempts to reduce the inefficiencies that developed in medical markets under traditional indemnity insurance. Liability rules that continue to apply norms of customary care threaten to undermine these potential efficiency gains. Liability rules under managed care sho...

Imperfect Observability , Tort Liability Rules , and Incentive for Care ∗

This paper studies an economic model of tort liability rules and considers litigation between a firm and a consumer, under the assumption that the consumer may not perfectly observe the firm’s action. We compare two alternative tort liability rules: the Negligence rule and strict liability with contributory negligence. We consider the noiseless case as a benchmark, and show that under those two...

Who Pays for Tort Liability Claims? An Economic Analysis of the U.S. Tort Liability System

Expanded managed care liability : what impact on

Policymakers are considering legislative changes that would increase managed care organizations’ exposure to civil liability for withholding coverage or failing to deliver needed care. Using a combination of empirical information and theoretical analysis, we assess the likely responses of health plans and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan sponsors to an expansion of liability...

Limiting Tort Liability for Medical Malpractice

The past few years have seen a sharp increase in premiums for medical malpractice liability insurance, which health care professionals buy to protect themselves from the costs of being sued (see Figure 1 on page 2). On average, premiums for all physicians nationwide rose by 15 percent between 2000 and 2002—nearly twice as fast as total health care spending per person. The increases during that ...