More Data on Verdicts
The National Practioners Data Bank is an excellent source of information about jury verdicts and settlements against health care providers other than institutions. Why? Because federal law requires that verdicts and settlements over $10,000 must be reported to the Data Bank.
Here is a summary of some data Public Citizen pulled from the Data Bank concerning payments on behalf of doctors:
• Total payments for malpractice judgments have fallen 24.5 percent, from $299.6 million in 2000 to $226.2 million in 2004.
• The median payment resulting from a judgment appears to have risen, from $230,000 in 2000 to $265,000 in 2004.
• The total number of judgments against physicians dropped 31.9 percent between 2000 and 2004, from 670 to 456.
• The number of malpractice judgments against physicians, adjusted for population growth, has fallen 34.6 percent since 2000.
Read more here.
By the way, before reading too much into the growth in judgments over the last 5 years, remember that payments in these cases often include past or future medical costs and, during that five year payment, health care costs rose at least 30%.