Solving the medical malpractice crisis: use a clear and convincing evidence standard.

Effective legal reform and the malpractice insurance crisis.

This Case Study is built around two fundamental questions: First, is there really a malpractice insurance crisis in the United States today? Second, what is the best way to improve the medical liability system? While there is much ongoing debate, this Case Study argues that the answers to both questions are clear. I first review the nature, breadth, and source of the current crisis and then exa...

Fixing Medical Malpractice through Health Insurer Enterprise Liability

The United States medical malpractice regime is broken. Medical malpractice liability exists to serve two ends: it encourages efficient behavior by providers and compensates those harmed by the providers’ negligent acts or omissions.1 Unfortunately, empirical evidence shows that the system is exceedingly imperfect on both counts. The current malpractice regime distorts physician incentives in a...

Medical malpractice: impact of the crisis and effect of state tort reforms.

As a result of rapidly rising medical malpractice insurance premiums, reduced availability of coverage, and financially distressed liability insurers, many states have passed tort reforms. This synthesis examines the medical malpractice ""crisis"" and the effect of state tort reforms. Evidence shows that caps on non-economic damages reduce the average size of malpractice awards by 20 to 30 perc...

Medical Malpractice Crisis Medical Malpractice Crisis

Understanding medical malpractice insurance: a primer.

As the policy debate over the medical malpractice insurance crisis continues, dueling claims about its causes and suggestions for policy solutions have highlighted the need for a better understanding of how medical malpractice insurance works, why premiums change and what can be done about it. This primer on malpractice insurance discusses these issues and also analyzes the causes of and potent...