Friday, 10 February 2006
Malpractice Racks Up 10% Of Total Health Insurance Costs
The cost of healthcare is rising, and in part due to medical malpractice and all that it entails, reports TMCnet.
Litigation resulting from malpractice suits as well as the defensive steps doctors are taking to stay out of trouble add up to 10% of the country’s health insurance cost, according to a new report sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans.
To avoid running into a malpractice suit, doctors are increasingly performing procedures that are more involved than might be necessary. This directly drives up insurance costs. In total, $150 billion is spent on such defensive medicine each year.
Defensive medicine not only drives up insurance costs, it weakens the quality of healthcare patients receive overall.
For the full story, visit TMCnet.
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