Currents in Contemporary Bioethics

See, e.g., Mello M. M. Chandra A. Gawande A. A. Studdert D. M. , “National Costs of the Medical Liability System,” Health Affairs 29, no. 9 (2010): 1569–1576.

See, e.g., Black B. Hyman D. A. Silver C. Sage W. M. , “Defense Costs and Insurer Reserves in Medical Malpractice and Other Personal Injury Cases: Evidence from Texas, 1988–2004,” American Law and Economics Review 10, no. 2 (2008): 185–245; Mello M. M. Brennan T. A. , “Deterrence of Medical Errors: Theory and Evidence for Malpractice Reform,” Texas Law Review 80, no. 7 (2001–2002): 1595–1637

Pub. L. No. 111–148 (2010), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, Pub. L. No. 111–152 (2010).

Congressional Budget Office, Health Care, available at <www.cbo.gov/publications/collections/health.cfm> (last visited July 30, 2010).

See Sage W. M. Kersh R. , eds. Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006); Hyman D. A. Silver C. , “Medical Malpractice Litigation and Tort Reform: It's the Incentives, Stupid,” Vanderbilt Law Review 59, no. 4 (2006): 1085–1136.

The number of lawsuits resulting in an award for the plaintiff, including jury awards and settlements, is too narrow and does not reflect the substantial costs in defending even the cases in which the defendant prevails.

Hickson G. B. Clayton E. W. Githens P. B. Sloan F. A. , “Factors That Prompted Families to File Medical Malpractice Claims Following Perinatal Injuries,” Journal of the American Medical Association 267, no. 10 (1992): 1359–1363.

Hiatt H.H. , “A Study of Medical Injury and Medical Malpractice,” New England Journal of Medicine 321, no. 7 (1989): 480–484; Hickson , supra note 7; Levinson W. , “Physician-Patient Communication: The Relationship with Malpractice Claims among Primary Care Physicians and Surgeons,” Journal of the American Medical Association 277, no. 7 (1997): 553–559: Relis T. , “‘It's Not About the Money!’: A Theory on Misconceptions of Plaintiffs' Litigation Aims,” University of Pittsburgh Law Review 68, no. 2 (2007): 341–385; Vincent C. Young M. Phillips A. , “Why Do People Sue Doctors? A Study of Patients and Relatives Taking Legal Action,” The Lancet 343, no. 8913 (1994): 1609–1613.

Kraman S. S. Hamm G. , “Risk Management: Extreme Honesty May Be the Best Policy,” Annals of Internal Medicine 131 (1999): 963–967; Kachalia A. , “Liability Claims and Costs Before and After Implementaion of a Medical Error Disclosure Program,” Annals of Internal Medicine 153, no. 4 (2010): 213–221; Liebman C. B. Hyman C. S. , “A Mediation Skills Model to Manage Disclosure of Errors and Adverse Events to Patients,” Health Affairs 23, no. 4 (2004): 22–32; Mastroianni A. C. , “The Flaws in State Apology' Laws Dilute Their Impact on Malpractice Suits,” Health Affairs 29 no. 9 (2010): 1611–1619; Mello M. M. Gallagher T. H. , “Malpractice Reform - Opportunities for Leadership by Health Care Institutions and Liability Insurers,” New England Journal of Medicine 362, no. 15 (2010): 1353–1356.

One well known study found that 53 percent of the compensation for medical injuries involved future health care costs. Studdert D. M. Brennan T. A. Thomas E. J. , “Beyond Dead Reckoning: Measures of Medical Injury Burden, Malpractice Litigation, and Alternative Compensation Models from Utah and Colorado,” Indiana Law Review 33, no. 4 (2000): 1643–1686. Although beyond the scope of this article, it is interesting to consider whether health care reform, besides potentially limiting the number of medical malpractice case filings, will also serve to limit the amount of the awards.

Burstin H. R. Johnson W. G. Lipsitz S. R. Brennan T. A. , “Do the Poor Sue More? A Case-Control Study of Malpractice Claims and Socioeconomic Status,” Journal of the American Medical Association 270, no. 14 (1993): 1697–1701.

Id., at 1700–01.

Twedt S. , “Medical Malpractice Suits Drop but Take a Toll,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 18, 2010, available at <www.post-gazette.com/pg/10199/1073354–28.stm> (last visited July 29, 2010).

National Practitioner Data Bank, available at <http://www.npdb.hrsa.gov/index.html>, compiled in Public Citizen, “Medical Malpractice Payments Fall Again in 2009,” at App., available at <www.citizen.org> (last visited August 13, 2010).

Best A. M. , “Solid Underwriting Undercut by MPLI's Investment Losses,” Best's Special Report, April 27, 2009, quoted in Hunter J. R. Cassell-Stiga G. Doroshow J. , “True Risk: Medical Liability, Malpractice Insurance and Health Care,” at 12, available at <www.insurance-reform.org/TrueRiskF.pdf> (last visited August 13, 2010).

See generally Institute of Medicine, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2001); Schoenbaum S. S. Bovbjerg R. R. , “Malpractice Reform Must Include Steps to Prevent Medical Injury,” Annals of Internal Medicine 140, no. 1 (2004): 51–53.

See Carrier E. C. , “Physicians' Fears of Malpractice Lawsuits Are Not Assuaged by Tort Reforms,” Health Affairs 29, no. 9 (2010): 1585–1591.