Type 1 and 2 errors of courts deciding in medical malpractice trials a¤ect the physicians’provision of care. The paper at hand uses a principal-agent model to explain why uncertain liability prospects induce a welfare reducing separated equilibrium where altruistic physicians practice defensive medicine and sel…sh physicians act negligently. By minimizing the loss of welfare, it identi…es an op...

We assess the potential for medical liability forces to deter medical errors and improve health care treatment quality, identifying liability's influence by drawing on variations in the manner by which states formulate the negligence standard facing physicians. Using hospital discharge records from the National Hospital Discharge Survey and clinically-validated quality metrics inspired by the A...

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...

Professor Blumstein's timely article deals with two competing paradigms that provide the poles in the spectrum of legal liability regimes. The "professional" or "scientific" model of liability assumes a rigidly normative approach to medical practice while the second more recent paradigm reflects the principles of marketplace economics in considering cost and resource availability to determine q...

The AAPM Professional Liability Insurance program provides a unique ability for medical physicists to obtain liability coverage for risks arising from the practice of medical physics. In the near future, the program is expected to introduce a new occurrence-form coverage option which has important implications and differences from the existing claims-made coverage. Since both forms will be offe...

By many accounts, the United States is in the midst of its third medical malpractice "crisis." Physicians in several states are facing high and rising premiums. The largest national medical malpractice carrier and some large multistate physician-backed liability firms have recently left the market. Rising premiums are traced largely to increases in claims severity. Capping malpractice payments ...

The American Academy of Pediatrics joins with other medical organizations in emphasizing the obligation of objectivity when its members respond to requests to serve as expert witnesses in the judicial systern. Regardless of the source of the request, such testimony ought to embody the relevant facts and the expert’s knowledge, experience, and best judgment regarding the case. At the same time, ...

We examine optimal individual and entity-level liability for negligence when expected accident costs depend on both the agent's level of expertise and the principal's level of authority. We consider these issues in the context of physician and managed care organization (MCO) liability for medical malpractice. Under current law, physicians generally are considered independent contractors and hen...