Medical Malprastice, And The Economics Of Medical Malpractice

Economics of Medical Malpractice

I. Introduction: What is Medical Malpractice?

“Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor or other health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, causes an injury to a patient. The negligence might be the result of errors in diagnosis, treatment, aftercare or health management.”1 Medical Malpractice is a term that has been coined for the processes of medical treatment or procedures performed incorrectly or without a probable cause. In order for something to be considered “malpractice”, there is certain criteria that must be met. For example, the criteria of “standard care” must be broken. Standard care is the law that there are certain medical standards that are recognized by the profession

“20-50% of medical scans performed in America should not have been done.”2 While insurance covers most of these procedures, there is a co-pay, which takes money out of the patients wallet unrightfully. Additionally, Health Affairs claims that on average, it costs $1,666 dollars for a 24 hour stay at a hospital. When unnecessary procedures and surgeries are performed, patients must stay in the hospital for longer, and as stated previously, will rack up the bill quite quickly. While these malpractices are not intentionally performed with an ulterior motive to net patients money, there are economic consequences and it plays a major role in the field of malpractices. Some surgeries take days to recover from. Staying in the hospital for 4 days that were not needed is $6,664 dollars out of pocket, not to mention recurring therapy session costs, medication costs and follow up or check up appointments that follow a surgical procedure. One illegitimate procedure can put someone back tens of thousands of dollars which is a clear violation of standard care. But there is a protection plan in place for both the doctors and the patients in the form of Medical Malpractice Liability Insurance.

III. Medical Liability Insurance

“A medical professional liability insurance policy covers bodily injury or property damage as well as liability for personal injury such as mental anguish. The complexity involved in discovering negligence results in a higher

It protects healthcare providers by spending extensive amounts of money investigating claims to insure they are truthful and classifiable as medical malpractice or not. Many people file lawsuits for medical malpractice unjustly. In South Texas it is somewhat common for people to press false malpractice charges. Hence, this insurance is necessary for the cases in which people attempt to press false charges. On the other side of this argument, the insurance also watches out for the victims when it truly is a malpractice by compensating them for the injuries, time, pain and mental anguish. These reimbursements can sometimes reach the multi-million dollar mark. Like previously stated, there are many post-effects from these malpractices which cost money, not to mention mental anguish and stress disorders triggered by untruthful accusations and diagnoses. Like stated, medication costs, therapy session costs, follow up appointments, time, stress, and anguish are some things that cannot be perfectly compensated, but paying out great amounts of money definitely helps. Since sometimes, while very rare, these insurance companies pay out millions of dollars, they must charge high rates for the insurance to the medical providers to make sure they do not lose money when they do have