BACKGROUND Almost half of the US states face serious problems with professional liability insurance (PLI). Despite this, little is known about how this crisis is affecting access to care, particularly in rural areas. METHODS We surveyed physicians practicing in rural Florida in 2003. The primary assessment was on changes in health care delivery by service type and specialty. Secondary outcome...

The liability regime governing geologic carbon sequestration will shape the technology’s costeffectiveness and overall attractiveness. Key cradle-to-grave issues affecting liability include choice of liability regime, mandates for corrective action in case of leakage or accident, the need for insurance, and determination of potentially responsible parties. Rather than assuming that the existing...

To meet its goal of universal health insurance coverage, the Clinton health plan requires all employers to offer health insurance to their employees. Using survey data on more than 2,200 small businesses, we estimate how many firms and employees would be affected by this mandate and calculate the financial burden, adjusting for the small-business subsidies recommended in the Clinton plan. Becau...

Medical Professional Liability Claims Related to Esophageal Cancer Screening Endoscopic screening for esophageal adenocarcinoma has been recommended for patients with chronic symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease, but only if they have additional risk factors.1-3 Surveys of gastroenterologists indicate that concern about litigation for missing a cancer may drive endoscopy use in patients ...

The objective of most US institutions with assets to invest is to fund some sort of liability, as is the case with banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and so forth. As a result, asset/liability management (ALM) should be the investment focus and the basis for selecting the core portfolio. Insurance companies may be the birthplace of ALM and certainly have been the model of ALM discipline...

This paper aims to examine increases in professional liability for architectural and engineering (A/E) professionals following quantitative changes in litigation risks after the Chichi Earthquake. The methodology uses t-tests and ANOVA to analyse the impact of the earthquake with regard to (1) the number of A/E litigations, (2) the type of plaintiff, (3) court decisions, and (4) the scope of A/...

This article focuses on a specific aspect of liability insurance that arises out of the latent nature of certain insured events. In particular, it is concerned with the fact that in the interval between the original tort and the claim for damages the standard of care applied by the courts may change. This is the problem of retroactive liability. The article begins by briefly reviewing the legal...

This paper presents a universal framework for pricing financial and insurance risks. Examples are given for pricing contingent payoffs, where the underlying asset or liability can be either traded or not traded. The paper also outlines an application of the framework to prescribe capital allocations within insurance companies, and to determine fair value for insurance liabilities.

Legal liability for accidents determines the circumstances under which injurers must compensate injurers for harm. The effects of liability on incentives to reduce risk, on risk-bearing and insurance (both direct coverage for victims and liability coverage for injurers), and on administrative expenses are considered. Liability is also compared to other methods of controlling harmful activities,...