[February 07, 2013]

Malpractice Claims Data Shows Litigation System Needs Reform

In two short videos released by The Doctors Company, the nation's largest medical malpractice insurer, Chairman and CEO Richard E. Anderson, MD, FACP, provides national data from a collaboration with the RAND Corporation that objectively indicates the malpractice litigation system is broken and needs to be fixed.

The Doctors Company gave the RAND Corporation and other researchers unfettered access to its claims database with over 40,000 physicians who had faced malpractice claims between 1995 and 2005 in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia. The resulting study was recently published in Health Affairs.

In the video "Pending Malpractice Claims Consume Physicians' Careers," Dr. Anderson discusses the RAND study, finding that the average physician spends 50.7 months, or over four years, of a 40-year career fighting malpractice claims-the majority of which end up with no indemnity payment.

Dr. Anderson also cites findings that show the percentage of physicians in each specialty who face a claim every single year. In the video "Malpractice Claims Faced Annually by Physicians," he notes that 20 percent of all neurosurgeons report a claim every year, compared with 15.5 percent of general surgeons, 10 percent of urologists, and 7.5 percent of internists.

"We are pleased to share our unique claims database for this significant research," Dr. Anderson said. "With nearly 75,000 members and over 35 years of experience in medical malpractice litigation, we have the depth and breadth of information required for this type of research. These findings by the RAND Corporation are objective evidence that the litigation system needs to be fixed so physicians can spend their time practicing good medicine instead of fighting claims, the majority of which are fruitless, if not frivolous."

To view the videos and to subscribe to The Doctors Company YouTube (News - Alert) channel, go to www.youtube.com/doctorscompany. To view more extensive data on the time spent by physicians on malpractice claims, go to www.thedoctors.com/claimsfrequency.

About The Doctors Company

Founded by doctors for doctors in 1976, The Doctors Company (www.thedoctors.com) is relentlessly committed to advancing, protecting, and rewarding the practice of good medicine. The Doctors Company is the nation's largest medical malpractice insurer, with 73,000 members and $4 billion in assets, and is rated A by A.M. Best Company and Fitch Ratings.

Follow The Doctors Company on Twitter at @doctorscompany for industry trends, subscribe to its YouTube site to hear from industry experts, connect with The Doctors Company on LinkedIn to engage with company leaders, and find information on its key milestones and achievements on Facebook.

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