The cost of a meritless claim

A physician responds to an editorial in PA:

But defending cases costs an average of $50,000 – even if it never gets to court. These costs, initially paid by the insurance companies, are passed on in premium increases to doctors and hospitals. And the cost of staggering jury awards, also paid by insurance companies, is passed on in premium increases to ALL doctors, even if negligence is found in only a few. Doctors can’t pass on these costs because of fixed payments by Medicare and health insurers.
I saw my own premium rise 600 percent over several years. Eventually, the vise became too tight, and I closed my practice on Dec. 31, 2004. I’m not alone.

Comments

Anonymous
I wonder if this Pennsylvania doctor has considered the fact that 2 Pennsylvania insurers who went under due to gross financial mismanagement (according to the PA Dept. of Insurance) as anything to do with his premiums? Or the fact that his premiums had not increased with the rate of medical inflation for the decade before was inevitably going to result in a correction? Or the fact that 9/11 increased the cost of reinsurance which resulted in higher premiums.
Probably not.
Anonymous
Anon 10:47,
I wonder if you even believe your own arguments. Probably not. You don’t know who her insurer was, “corrections” in premium prices are NOT inevitable, and the 9/11 reinsurance argument has been debunked numerous times. The number of lawsuits HAS increased, as has the number of physicians who have been sued for bullshit.
Anonymous
It’s obvious you don’t know what you’re talking about, 12:46, so here, I’ll help you.
Google “Reliant Insurance” and “Pennsylvania Dept. of Insurance”. It will lay out the charges and the measures that had to be taken, including additional charges to the remaining insurers to cover the bankrupt ones.
Also, a correction was inevitable, and that’s simple math. The cost of med mal claims historically tracks with the rate of medical inflation. Why? Because the bulk of awards are for past and future medical bills. So, if throughout the 90s medical inflation was, for example, 8%. And if insurers competed for your business by not raising prices or actually cutting premiums, eventually, even assuming the number of filings did not go up, when the float income declined or reinsurance costs went up, as both did after 9/11, premiums were going to have to be corrected.
And no, you don’t have any clue if the number of lawsuits has gone up, just as you have no clue exactly what it costs insurers. Why? Because they haven’t shown you raw numbers. They give you stats, but you have no idea what exactly they are based on.
A simple thank you will do for that education.
Anonymous
But those same stats are good enought for YOU to make the counter argument??
Anonymous
I don’t know what I’m talking about? Guess you’re borrowing pages from the ATLA playbook. Instead of telling me to Google something (BTW, It’s Reliance, not Reliant, and PHICO, not the Dept of Insurance), why don’t you try this link from Point of Law last year, which debunks your supposed points. And if you check the recent PA statisitics re: med-mal suits, the number of physicians sued in the state has GONE UP!
It’s OK – you don’t have to thank me for pointing out the truth.
Anonymous
Sorry – the link didn’t paste on the last post. Here it is:
http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/001292.php
Anonymous
Let’s see, who to believe – the PA Dept. of Insurance or guys who lobby for the insurance industry. . . . . hmmmm. . . . that’s a tough one.
Seriously, educate yourself on the insurance industry, particularly med mal, over the last two decades. Read independent sources on insurance in general. You’ll be amazed at how what you’ve been spoonfed differs from the truth. Hell, read the quotes from the insurers themselves. They tell you time and again that it’s cyclical.
Anonymous
This is why we need a statute where the loser pays. Nobody should be able to casually sue somebody without risk.
Anonymous
Don’t get upset guys…these a-hole patients will pay through defensive medicine…they just don’t know it yet…
Anonymous
“Let’s see, who to believe – the PA Dept. of Insurance or guys who lobby for the insurance industry. . . . . hmmmm. . . . that’s a tough one.”
Let’s see – who do you believe – ATLA or lawyers independent of the “legal industry” – that’s easy…
Anonymous
Every day I read these posts and listen to the bullshit rants of Lawyers about why thy need to exist and why Lawsuits against doctors are agood thig I come to the same conclusion: I have more respect for child molestors then for Plaintiffs attorneys. I mean, what Child molestor would go out and inject too much cocaine, go to the hospital and drop dead, then say it’s the doctor’s fault? There’s what these Sodomites are prosecuting us for.
Anonymous
I think it’s great that you think so highly of yourself. A lot of child molesters really struggle with depression.
Anonymous
“This is why we need a statute where the loser pays. Nobody should be able to casually sue somebody without risk.”
Yeah, there’s no risk in spending thousands on expert witnesses, and hundreds of hours of your time on a malpractice case. None at all.
You guys going to allow the plaintiff to collect attorney’s fees? They don’t get to now, so that would be nice. You can collect them from the plaintiff, who probably can’t afford their medical bills, much less your insurer’s attorney’s bills. Oh yeah, you forgot you wouldn’t be seeing any of that money even if they could pay, didn’t you?
You’re an economic genius.
Anonymous
A statute where the loser pays? I like the sound of that. We also need a statute that requires revocation of licensure of any whore physician supporting a junk science plaintiff’s case. Any credulous dolt of a physcian that supports the arguement of “patient was asymptomatic before [insert random event here] and was symptomatic after [insert random event here] therefore [insert random event here] caused [insert random diagnosis here]” needs to be removed from practice as they are only serving to grease the wheels of the BS legal system. There is nothing stopping the major medical organizations from demanding that physicians stop whorning themselves to the lawyers. Physicians whining for special rights when it comes to their ilk as defendants should first stop their whore colleagues from dipping into the litigation pot and causing untold amounts of damage to other innocent third parties.
Samson Isberg
Anon 2:50, I could not fail to disagree less with what you’re saying; but how are “we” (doctors) to sanction the two-dollar hookers posing as “expert witnesses” in the courts, only the courts themselves can do that and they refuse to do so,
I suggest that any medical “Expert witness” giving testimony not in compliance with evidence-based madicine or/and ordinary logic should be indicted and punished for perjury.
Anonymous
Samson:
Start at the State Licensure level. Make the provision of “expert witness” testimony on the part of clinicians the equivalent of involvement in moral terpitude. The State Boards need to start pulling the licenses of clinicians that are debasing the field with their actions. Having a venue for prostitution (the courts) and willing johns (the trial lawyers) does not absolve the clinicians of the responsibility of staying out of the whole sordid mess (going to court and lieing on worker’s comp and PI cases for the “benefit” of a patient or to line your pockets is not an excuse).
Anonymous
Here is another mechanism. Treating on a lien basis should also be deemed an action of moral terpitude and result in the onset of license revocation proceedings. How can any clinician be considered as one providing honest testimony when there exists a huge financial benefit for them to lie on the stand regarding causation and necessity for treatment?
As long as physicians are willing to whore themselves out on PI/toxic tort/worker’s comp cases they have no ground to stand on when it comes to demanding special privilages or higher burdens of proof regrding med mal cases.
Anonymous
“We also need a statute that requires revocation of licensure of any whore physician supporting a junk science plaintiff’s case. “
And those whores who testify for the defense? Oops, forgot about them, didn’t you.
You guys make me ill. You’ll go to no lengths to protect your own, regardless of fault. You don’t give a rat’s ass about the patient once they leave your office, and then you only care if you get paid.
Anonymous
Get rid of the plaintiffs’ whores and the defense whores would be out of business as there would be no need for the insurance companies to hire them. For every BS med-mal case there are thousands of junk science BS PI and WC cases that physicians run to as if they were Paris Hilton at a whore-off.
Anonymous
“You guys going to allow the plaintiff to collect attorney’s fees? They don’t get to now, so that would be nice. You can collect them from the plaintiff, who probably can’t afford their medical bills, much less your insurer’s attorney’s bills. Oh yeah, you forgot you wouldn’t be seeing any of that money even if they could pay, didn’t you?”
The winner would recoup economic and noneconomic losses pertaining to the suit as permitted by law. The plaintiff’s attorney accepting contigency would be required to post a bond to cover such losses before a claim is filed. Economics 101.
Anonymous
“We also need a statute that requires revocation of licensure of any whore physician supporting a junk science plaintiff’s case.”
Agreed. But let us not stop there. I would add that the attorney knowingly soliciting such whore, the Pimp, be noted to be guilty of fraudulently abusing our legal system for personal gain. This should result in disbarment.
Anonymous
“The plaintiff’s attorney accepting contigency would be required to post a bond to cover such losses before a claim is filed.”
So why carry insurance? Basically, what you’ve done is just given yourself immunity. You have no incentive to explain yourself to the patient or improve your skills because it would now be nearly impossible for a plaintiff to bring a case.
Here’s a thought – why not become a better physician instead of screwing over the patients twice?
Anonymous
When are all you cowardly lions moving to Europe like you keep threatening?
Anonymous
“So why carry insurance?”
Because even in countries where they don’t allow your lottery system, ass-raping bullshit, doctors carry insurance, for the EXTREME negligent cases, ie amputating the wrong leg, as Insurance to cover one’s assets in case of a MAJOR medical Error. In the US, the sodomites eye our insurance dollars like a mentally retarded girl walking down Sunset strip in a mini-skirt with no panties.
Anonymous
“Here’s a thought – why not become a better physician instead of screwing over the patients twice?”
Because I am not God, although you may be the devil!
Anonymous
Tell me why you felt a need to add the words “mentally retarded” to your ass rant above?
Are you saying that people wouldn’t look at a non-mentally retarded girl walking down sunset blvd. naked? Or do you think only the mentally challenged would dare such a thing? If you do, you better get that head up from the sand. These suppossedly sane girls have been walking around naked, hoping to get looked at for years.
Anonymous
“Tell me why you felt a need to add the words “mentally retarded” to your ass rant above?”
Because there was a story in the news a few years ago about that exact thing happening. The mentally retarded girl got raped, and the rapist got off because, according to the judge (another shit-for-brains”sodomite”) She deserved it for walking around without underwear. The rapist went out and raped again.
Anonymous
Seriously, how long has it been since you and the truth, or reality in general, parted ways?

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