A recent study published in the public policy journal Health Affairs provides important information about the costs of medical malpractice litigation and defensive medicine in comparison to the total cost of U.S. health care.
Several researchers from Harvard University authored the study, which reveals that the medical liability system, a vital means for holding health care professionals accountable to accepted standards, amounts to only 2.4 percent of American health care expenditures. Source: NewsInferno.
Despite the popular beliefs to the contrary, medical malpractice claims really do play a valuable role in holding health care professionals accountable when they breach the prevailing professional standard of care. Unfortunately, at least in Florida, the popular beliefs to the contrary have led to legal reforms in the medical malpractice system which have crippled the rights of those injured by a physician’s malpractice.
- Did you know that, in Florida, if a widowed parent loses their life due to the malpractice of a physician, the adult children of that widowed parent have no right to pursue a claim for their pain and suffering?
- Did you know that, in Florida, if you or a loved one are injured as a result of the malpractice of a health care provider that treats you in the emergency department, you have to prove that the health care provider acted with “reckless disregard” to recover damages? And, that even if you can prove “reckless disregard”, a very difficult and high standard, your damages for your injuries or loss of a loved one are capped at $100,000 per person?
There is a malpractice crisis in Florida – but the patients of negligent health care providers are the ones suffering as a result. Not the physicians.