Malpractice Costs Up 150% Since 1999, Hospital Association Says

[Train]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01...ion/06malpractice.html

The cost of medical malpractice insurance in New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island has risen by nearly 150 percent since 1999, creating severe financial strains that have limited patients' access to such specialties as obstetrics and gynecology and made New York a "crisis state" for doctors, according to a report released yesterday by a hospital trade group

Thats just great, lets sue hospitals for so much that now people cant even get healthcare.

 

[jpeyton]

So by your argument, once tort reform goes through, we'll see a huge cut in malpractice insurance premiums, right?

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
So by your argument, once tort reform goes through, we'll see a huge cut in malpractice insurance premiums, right?

Yes, since the insurance companies that support the hospital association in the article paid $1.44 in claims per dollar collected (some of them were forced to go under) due to multi-million dollar lawsuits (one over 90 Million) I think its safe to say the cost just might come down a wee bit.

 

[conjur]

And it said many of the nation's largest malpractice awards, some exceeding $90 million, had occurred in New York City. Although such awards are routinely reduced before the cases are settled, the study listed huge settlements reached in recent years, including one for $50.1 million in Manhattan in 2002 and another for $10.6 million in Brooklyn in 2000.

Both those cases involved children who suffered brain damage while under hospital care.

Let's forget about accountability and greater precision and caution on the part of the caregivers. :roll:

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: conjur

And it said many of the nation's largest malpractice awards, some exceeding $90 million, had occurred in New York City. Although such awards are routinely reduced before the cases are settled, the study listed huge settlements reached in recent years, including one for $50.1 million in Manhattan in 2002 and another for $10.6 million in Brooklyn in 2000.

Both those cases involved children who suffered brain damage while under hospital care.

Let's forget about accountability and greater precision and caution on the part of the caregivers. :roll:

Well I think it's a safe bet that doctors haven't become 150% worse since 1999, why the increase malpractice costs?

But I also think limiting how much you can sue a doctor for won't lower health care costs one cent. Sure, the doctors will have more money...but what do you think they'll do with it? They'll keep in and continue to charge what the market can support. The real costs in health care are drugs anyways, and what do you know, nobody is going after THEM, are they?

 

[ReiAyanami]

seeing as how hospitals kill between 40,000 and 140,000 patients each year due to "careless" mistakes like injecting cleaning fluid instead of anesthesia, we need to protect hospitals that cut costs from their own incompetence.

what we really need is more nurses and less 12/16-hour shifts

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Rainsford

Originally posted by: conjur

And it said many of the nation's largest malpractice awards, some exceeding $90 million, had occurred in New York City. Although such awards are routinely reduced before the cases are settled, the study listed huge settlements reached in recent years, including one for $50.1 million in Manhattan in 2002 and another for $10.6 million in Brooklyn in 2000.

Both those cases involved children who suffered brain damage while under hospital care.

Let's forget about accountability and greater precision and caution on the part of the caregivers. :roll:

Well I think it's a safe bet that doctors haven't become 150% worse since 1999, why the increase malpractice costs?

But I also think limiting how much you can sue a doctor for won't lower health care costs one cent. Sure, the doctors will have more money...but what do you think they'll do with it? They'll keep in and continue to charge what the market can support. The real costs in health care are drugs anyways, and what do you know, nobody is going after THEM, are they?

And the cost of equipment used in hospitals. Why is a room costing $4,000/night?

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: Train
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01...ion/06malpractice.html

The cost of medical malpractice insurance in New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island has risen by nearly 150 percent since 1999, creating severe financial strains that have limited patients' access to such specialties as obstetrics and gynecology and made New York a "crisis state" for doctors, according to a report released yesterday by a hospital trade group

Thats just great, lets sue hospitals for so much that now people cant even get healthcare.

Do you believe in states rights? Don't you think NY should fix it's own laws?

 

[chowderhead]

I have already posted that tort reform must be looked at. Yes we hear all about the large awards and such but we do really know the totality of the system.

We have to also look at what the insurance companies are doing as well. Why are there such large increases in preminums?
There has to be studies and SEC filings from all these insurance companies and HMOs about their investment income and losses over the years. Do the increases in preminums correlate with the losses in the market that many companies (and institutions) that invest in the stock markets saw in the 90s and early 2000s.
Basically, I am asking are the insurance companies trying to recoup their losses in the stock market by passing on huge increases in preminums to their customers?

According to this study
pdf of the effects of malpractice suits on insurance
This study found that payouts and settlements in malpractice suits have been stable and flat since the 1980s adjusted in constant dollars.
Preminums charged by insurers do not correspond to increases or decreases in payouts but that preminums rise and fall depending on the state of the economy and relates to the gains and losses the insurers have in the market investments.

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
So by your argument, once tort reform goes through, we'll see a huge cut in malpractice insurance premiums, right?

If it's good reform, then the premiums should at least stop going up.

Originally posted by: conjur
Let's forget about accountability and greater precision and caution on the part of the caregivers. :roll:

As always, there's a balance that must be achieved. Frivolous/junk science suits make up a large number as it stands now, doing damage to both the justice system and the healthcare system. It sounds like you think doctors and nurses are actually trying to injure people intentionally, which is just about the most ridiculous thing I've heard recently.

 

[SuperTool]

Gas prices and Euro are also up 50% since 1999, I don't see this adminstration particularly concerned about that.

 

[piasabird]

It is the corrupt court system in some places. Counties should charge higher rates for lawyers from outside of their county. Someone has to be making a killing on these court cases.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Train
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01...ion/06malpractice.html

The cost of medical malpractice insurance in New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island has risen by nearly 150 percent since 1999, creating severe financial strains that have limited patients' access to such specialties as obstetrics and gynecology and made New York a "crisis state" for doctors, according to a report released yesterday by a hospital trade group

Thats just great, lets sue hospitals for so much that now people cant even get healthcare.

Ahahahah this is hysterical seeing the RRR FLL's promote Bush Agenda issues.

It's been shown and proven that these so called malpractice awards are a fraction of 1% of the total costs with the Health Care debacle engine.

Funny how because this is a Bush Agenda that the RRR FLL's try and spin these numbers while ignoring Oil.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Rainsford

Originally posted by: conjur

And it said many of the nation's largest malpractice awards, some exceeding $90 million, had occurred in New York City. Although such awards are routinely reduced before the cases are settled, the study listed huge settlements reached in recent years, including one for $50.1 million in Manhattan in 2002 and another for $10.6 million in Brooklyn in 2000.

Both those cases involved children who suffered brain damage while under hospital care.

Let's forget about accountability and greater precision and caution on the part of the caregivers. :roll:

Well I think it's a safe bet that doctors haven't become 150% worse since 1999, why the increase malpractice costs?

But I also think limiting how much you can sue a doctor for won't lower health care costs one cent. Sure, the doctors will have more money...but what do you think they'll do with it? They'll keep in and continue to charge what the market can support. The real costs in health care are drugs anyways, and what do you know, nobody is going after THEM, are they?

And the cost of equipment used in hospitals. Why is a room costing $4,000/night?

Exactly. The problem is FAR beyond malpractice costs, no matter what people say. Reducing malpractice permiums will do very little to lower health care costs.

IMHO, the problem is that sick people are a "captive audience", as they say. Sick people can't choose not to get treated (most of the time), and there isn't a lot of competition on the equipment and drugs side of things. So businesses follow their one and only directive of making money and fvck over the sick people. Why? Because they can. Anyone who thinks the problem lies on the doctor's side of things is missing the point.

To quote a doctor talking to a drug rep on the TV show "Scrubs", "The dirty little secret is that your drug is so damn good that you went ahead and put about a 600% markup on it. And I mean what the hell, the only ones who get hurt are the sick people, right? And your company DAMN sure doesn't care about them."

 

[SViscusi]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: jpeyton
So by your argument, once tort reform goes through, we'll see a huge cut in malpractice insurance premiums, right?

Yes, since the insurance companies that support the hospital association in the article paid $1.44 in claims per dollar collected (some of them were forced to go under) due to multi-million dollar lawsuits (one over 90 Million) I think its safe to say the cost just might come down a wee bit.

Then why hasn't that happened in states with tort reform already?

 

[fornax]

But those huge awards will NOT be reduced or eliminated under the proposed tort reform, since it aims at reducing the "pain and suffering" payouts. It will not put limits on actual damages. The $10 mil and $50 mil awards are so big because the children will require life-time care. Little of that is for "pain and suffering".

Also, many doctors are dropouts of programs where they could not compete, and are drawn to the profession only for the money. I know personally two people who graduated university with physics major, were not accepted to a graduate program, and went into medicine.

Another curious tidbit: someone analyzed the scores of the GRE General (required for admission to almost any reputable grad school in the US and Canada) over many years. The best scores were of people who applied to Astronomy and Physics programs. Among the worst: Medicine and Law. While not every doctor or a lawyer is a dimwit, it does seem interesting that the people who are generally regarded as successful (doctors and lawyers), and in fact below the average when it comes to knowledge and thinking.

 

[KevinH]

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
seeing as how hospitals kill between 40,000 and 140,000 patients each year due to "careless" mistakes like injecting cleaning fluid instead of anesthesia, we need to protect hospitals that cut costs from their own incompetence.

what we really need is more nurses and less 12/16-hour shifts

Agree 100%.