A recent study published in Health Affairs found that the cost of medical malpractice in United States totals $55.6 billion annually, or 2.4 percent of annual healthcare spending, and includes $45.6 billion in costs related to defensive medicine, according to a report by U.S. News & World Report.
Researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston performed the study, which analyzed payments made to malpractice plaintiffs, defensive medicine costs, legal fees and other administrative costs, along with the costs of lost clinician work time related to malpractice, according to the report.
According to the researchers, while medical malpractice reform is unlikely to be a source of significant savings, as some have suggested, the amount spent on defensive medicine is not "trivial," according to the report.
Read the U.S. News & World Report article on medical malpractice costs.
Read more coverage on medical malpractice costs:
- Study Finds 42% of Physicians Have Been Sued for Malpractice
Researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston performed the study, which analyzed payments made to malpractice plaintiffs, defensive medicine costs, legal fees and other administrative costs, along with the costs of lost clinician work time related to malpractice, according to the report.
According to the researchers, while medical malpractice reform is unlikely to be a source of significant savings, as some have suggested, the amount spent on defensive medicine is not "trivial," according to the report.
Read the U.S. News & World Report article on medical malpractice costs.
Read more coverage on medical malpractice costs:
- Study Finds 42% of Physicians Have Been Sued for Malpractice