Dartmouth Study Says Jury Awards Not Responsible for Bump in Malpractice Insurance Premiums

A new study by Dartmouth economists, published May 31 in Health Affairs and entitled "The Growth of Physician Medical Malpractice Payments: Evidence from the National Practitioner Data Bank," suggests that jury awards are not the primary factor driving the recent spike in medical malpractice premiums. From the abstract:

We used data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) to study the growth of physician malpractice payments. Judgments at trial account for 4 percent of all malpractice payments; settlements account for the remaining 96 percent. The average payment grew 52 percent between 1991 and 2003 (4 percent per year) and now exceeds $12 per capita each year. These increases are consistent with increases in the cost of health care. A preoccupation with data on judgments, extreme awards, or specific specialties results in an incomplete understanding of the growth of physician malpractice payments.

The Boston Globe has more. It was Bob Ambrogi who clued us in.