Low Costs Of Defensive Medicine, Small Savings From Tort Reform

Thomas, John W.; Ziller, Erika C.; Thayer, Deborah

doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0146

Cited by 52 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…0 8 A study by Sloan and Shadle that covered more conditions and a longer span of years also produced insignificant results.1 09 A recent study's findings are summed up by its title: there are "low costs" associated with defensive medicine, and "small savings from tort reform." 110 Other studies have found stronger evidence of defensive medicine. One recent study found that health care spending was 3-4 percent lower in states that had adopted tort reform,' and another review put the cost of defensive medicine at $45.6 billion, while acknowledging the poor quality of the evidence supporting this figure.112…”

Section: Cost Of the Liability Systemmentioning

confidence: 97%

Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective: How Does the U.S. Do It?

Hyman¹,

Silver²

2013

Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective

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Section: Cost Of the Liability Systemmentioning

confidence: 97%

Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective: How Does the U.S. Do It?

Hyman¹,

Silver²

2013

Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective

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“…23 Researchers produced similar estimates of the impact of tort reform derived using different data sources and time periods. The estimated range of savings derived from a 10 percent decrease in malpractice premiums is 0.13 percent to 1.2 percent of total healthcare expenditures [145,148,149].…”

Section: Medical Malpractice Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

State-Based Single-Payer Health Care — A Solution for the United States?

Hsiao¹

2011

N Engl J Med

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ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe would like to thank the more than 100 individuals who met or talked with us over the course of this study, sharing their views, ideas and insights on health reform in Vermont. Without their contributions, our work would not have been possible. _________We would also like to thank the numerous Vermonters and Vermont organizations who provided thoughtful comments and insight during the public comment period. Their efforts helped make this report better, clearer and hopefully more useful to the State of Vermont.The comments pointed out some gaps, lack of clarity and inadequate analysis in our draft report. We are deeply grateful for these comments and have revised our draft report to improve the completeness and clarity of our analysis. The comments painted a clear picture of the diversity of views, of experiences with the health care system, of the deep feelings and beliefs about what a health care system should be, and the desire to do better for Vermonters. The comments also showed a sense of trepidation at the prospect of major systemic change, despite a general agreement over the unacceptability of the status quo.Health care touches us all, in personal, professional and economic ways. Major change brings uncertainties. We strongly believe, however, that Vermont can achieve its goals and set a model for the nation for an equitable, affordable, high-performing health system. _________ iii DISCLAIMERWe would like to thank the many institutions and organizations that allowed us to use their data to conduct analyses vital to this report. Unless otherwise cited from a published report, the analyses and the responsibility for their accuracy and integrity are solely ours. Any conclusions and recommendations in this report are solely those of Dr. Hsiao and are not necessarily those of the institutions and organizations that provided data.

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“…Kessler and McClellan (1996) found that laws restricting malpractice damages were associated with decreased spending in heart condition patients, but Currie and MacLeod (2008) found they resulted in increased use of C-section procedures in births. Other authors generally found small effects or no statistically significant evidence for defensive medicine (Dubay et al, 1999(Dubay et al, , 2001Baicker et al, 2007;Kim, 2007;Carrier et al, 2010;Thomas et al, 2010). Lakdawalla and Seabury (2012) found defensive medicine had moderate effects on spending growth, but argued these costs were justified by reduced mortality 3 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Defensive Medicine Reduce Health Care Spending?

Barkowski

2015

SSRN Journal

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The medical community often argues that physician fear of legal liability increases health care spending. Theoretically, though, the effect could be positive or negative, and empirical evidence has supported both cases. Previous empirical work, however, has ignored the fact that physicians face risk from industry oversight groups like statelevel medical licensing boards in addition to civil litigation risk. This paper addresses this omission by incorporating previously unused data on punishments by oversight groups against physicians, known as adverse actions, along with malpractice payments data to study state-level health care spending. My analysis suggests that health care spending does not rise in response to higher levels of risk. An increase in adverse actions equal to 16 (the mean, absolute value of year-to-year changes within a state) is found to be associated with statistically significant average annual spending decreases in hospital care and prescription drugs of as much as 0.25% (nearly $29 million) and 0.29% (almost $9.3 million). Malpractice payments were generally estimated to have smaller, statistically insignificant effects.

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Low Costs Of Defensive Medicine, Small Savings From Tort Reform

Cited by 52 publications

References 19 publications

Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective: How Does the U.S. Do It?

Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Global Perspective: How Does the U.S. Do It?

State-Based Single-Payer Health Care — A Solution for the United States?

Does Defensive Medicine Reduce Health Care Spending?

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