Physicians’ Insurance Limits and Malpractice Payments: Evidence from Texas Closed Claims, 1990–2003

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2007

Journal Title

Journal of Legal Studies

ISSN

0047-2530

DOI

10.1086/519467

Abstract

Physicians’ insuring practices influence their incentives to take care when treating patients, their risk of making out‐of‐pocket payments in malpractice cases, and the adequacy of compensation available to injured patients. Yet these practices and their effects have rarely been studied. Using Texas Department of Insurance data on 9,525 paid malpractice claims against physicians that closed in 1990–2003, we provide the first systematic evidence on levels of coverage purchased by physicians with paid liability claims and how those levels affect out‐of‐pocket payments and patient compensation. We find that these physicians carried much less insurance than is conventionally believed, that their real primary limits declined steadily over time, that policy limits often act as effective caps on recovery, and that personal contributions by physicians to close claims were rare. Our findings call into question a number of common assumptions about the relationship between physicians' insuring practices and the medical malpractice liability system.

First Page

S9

Last Page

S45

Num Pages

37

Volume Number

36

Issue Number

S2

Publisher

University of Chicago Law School

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