Lawsuit caps in Pittsburgh will NOT reduce malpractice insurance rates

As a Pittsburgh lawyer specializing in medical malpractice lawsuits I am often confronted by the claim the doctor negligence verdicts are out of control and the cause of increased insurance rates for doctors. In turn, it is argued that these higher rates are contributing to good doctors leaving our region to escape oppressive insurance premiums. Insurance companies use this argument to explain their increased malpractice rates. The truth is that malpractice verdicts have little to no relation to increased malpractice premiums. A 2005 report from Public Citizen confirms this. Read the report here.

Public Citizen (PC) is a 150,000-member non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., representing consumer interests through lobbying, litigation, research and public education.

PC's report shows there is no evidence that the spike in some doctors’ insurance rates is due to lawsuits and patients seeking compensation in the legal system. An analysis of information from the federal government’s National Practitioner Data Bank(NPDB)proves this in two ways:

1. Activity on the Decline: Measures such as the number, and total value, of malpractice payouts to patients have been flat since 1991 and show a significant decline since 2001, when the so-called “crisis” of escalating insurance rates began. Yet doctors and their
insurers continue to complain of a malpractice liability system out of control.

2. The System is Working: The medical liability system is not one of “jackpot” justice, in which patients go to court and score big awards based on flimsy claims. Instead, evidence shows that the system is working as designed: Those with minor injuries receive little compensation, while the great bulk of malpractice awards are for cases involving major, debilitating injuries – or death. This is the first year such information on the degree of patient harm is available from the NPDB, and it directly challenges the signature refrain of those seeking to limit recovery for damages.

The push by insurance company lobbyists to limit the amount that injured patients may recover in medical negligence lawsuits is completely self-serving. There is nothing to indicate that capping verdicts will do anything to "save" our health care industry. To the contrary, such caps will only serve to deprive persons injured through no fault of their own of the money they are legally entitled to.

I am always happy to discuss medical malpractice law with anyone interested in learning more about the process in Pittsburgh. Please feel free to call me, Brendan Lupetin, Esq., to learn more about medical malpractice law in Pittsburgh, Pa. Email: blupetin@epqlawyers.com or Phone: 412-765-3800. Share this post :

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