BlogLine
Report Shows New York is Medical Malpractice Payout Leader (Georgia ranked #23)
7/8/14
By: Scott Rees
Recently, Diederich Healthcare, a professional liability insurance provider, reported several interesting statistics regarding medical malpractice payouts for year 2013. The full report can be found at www.diederichhealthcare.com/the-standard/2014-medical-malpractice-payout-analysis. Below are a few interesting facts from that report:
- New York was the payout leader. New York, long known as a plaintiff friendly jurisdiction, confirmed that belief in 2013, with over $300 million being paid out. This equates to a per capita payout of $38.83, far and away the highest per capita payout of any state.
- Georgia’s per capita payout was $8.73, ranking it 23rd overall. Per capita, North Dakota was last at $2.96.
- Payouts increased for the first time in a decade. In 2013, $3.7 billion was paid out, representing a 4.7% increase from 2012. This is the first time in a decade that payouts are on the rise.
- Diagnosis issues comprise the top spot. The report indicated that diagnosis mistakes accounted for 33% of all payouts.
- The second spot belonged to surgical mistakes (23%)
- Treatment issues came in at third (18%)
- Settlements account for the majority of payouts. Not surprisingly, the report shows that settlements accounted for 96% of all payouts.
- Judgment amounts down. The research indicated that when a malpractice claim went to judgment, the average amount was down by $200,000. The number of payments decided by judgment went down from 5% to 3%.
Some interesting statistics, although it is unclear why certain states have payouts so much higher than others. There could be a number of explanations for such statistics (skewed results in any given year; lack of reporting; caps vs. no caps, concentration of wealth, etc.). I invite readers to comment on these results and provide any explanation they may have.