Study Attributes 10% of Health Insurance Costs to Malpractice-Related Expenses
Related Entries: Insurance NewsMedical malpractice litigation and the "defensive" measures doctors take to avoid it combine to account for 10% of the cost of health insurance, according to a new study prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The study estimated 2% of the cost of private health insurance could be attributed directly to the cost of malpractice. This partly reflects the prevalence of so-called "defensive" medicine.
Among other things, medical liability and defensive medicine combined to account for 18.2% of the cost of outpatient services; 12.5% of the cost of physician services; and 16.7% of the cost of "other" medical services.
Thompson and co-author Jack Rodgers cited a 2002 Juran Institute study that found 30% of all direct health-care spending could be attributed to overuse, misuse, and waste of health-care resources. As much as one-third of this "cost of poor quality" in health care results from deviations from best medical practices driven by the practice of defensive medicine, they said.
Posted on February 13, 2006 01:45 PM
