For those who are concerned with tort reform to let doctors have to pay out less here are an interesting statistic from Sidney M. Wolfe, writing in the New York Times.
* From 1990 to 2002, just 5% of doctors were involved in 54% of malpractice payouts.
Dr. Wolfe is making the point that if state review boards acted a bit tougher with doctors who got sued, than this problem might largely go away. "Is it any coincidence that the states least likely to discipline doctors are among those with insurance crises? Pennsylvania — where the governor had to intervene to keep doctors from going out on strike over malpractice insurance costs — has disciplined only 5 percent of the 512 doctors who had made payments in malpractice suits five or more times, the lowest percentage of any state. (Arizona, for example, has disciplined nearly half of the doctors in this category.)"
Maybe state medical boards need to grow a spine and start enforcing better standards.
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