Medicare-Led Malpractice Reform
Document Type
Book Section
Publication Date
6-2006
ISBN
9780521614115
DOI
10.1017/CBO9780511617836.017
Abstract
There is increasing interest among policy makers in an integrated approach to patient safety and medical liability. This chapter proposes and develops a breakthrough medical malpractice reform: a system of medical error identification, patient notification, rapid compensation, and safety improvement within the Medicare program. The reform would provide Medicare beneficiaries with better safety, improved communication in event of error, preservation of therapeutic relationships, timely settlement, and fair compensation at lower administrative cost. Disputes in the reformed system would be adjudicated by Medicare's existing administrative appeals system, which would work together with Medicare's quality improvement regulation and payment policy to reduce errors and compensate injured patients. Testing reform within Medicare would also make it possible to extend future reforms to the Medicaid population, which is also less likely than younger, nonindigent patients to bring malpractice claims.
First Page
318
Last Page
350
Num Pages
33
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Editor
William M. Sage & Rogan Kersh
Book Title
Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System
Recommended Citation
William M. Sage & Eleanor D. Kinney,
Medicare-Led Malpractice Reform,
in
Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System
318
(William M. Sage & Rogan Kersh eds., 2006).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1766