amitabh chandra::Sometimes it comforts one side amitabh chandra

amitabh chandra::Sometimes it comforts one side.
Sometimes, it comforts the other.
Now he and three other researchers have , published in the new england journal of medicine.
Among its findings is that a large majority of malpractice claims do not lead to any payment from a doctor to a patient.
Either the patient drops the case, or a court dismisses it.
In every medical specialty the researchers studied, at least three out of four claims led to no payment.
In many specialties, about 9 out of 10 claims led to no payment.
Over all, about 7 percent of doctors faced a claim in a given year, and fewer than 2 percent made any payment relating to a claim.
The researchers write: our results may speak to why physicians consistently report concern over malpractice and the intense pressure to practice defensive medicine, despite evidence that the scope of defensive medicine is modest.
The perceived threat of malpractice among physicians may boil down to three factors: the risk of a claim, the probability of a claim leading to a payment, and the size of payment.
Although the frequency and average size of paid claims may not fully explain perceptions among physicians, one may speculate that the large number of claims that do not lead to payment may shape perceived malpractice risk.
Physicians can insure against indemnity payments through malpractice insurance, but they cannot insure against the indirect costs of litigation, such as time, stress, added work, and reputational damage.
These findings seem consistent with suggesting that malpractice reform is nothing like a magic bullet for high medical costs.
In addition to mr.
Jena, seth seabury and darius lakdawalla.