Monday, January 27, 2014

LITIGATION and assumed DETERRENCE Effects

MedMal paper discussed here:

"In this paper, we estimate this relationship using clinically validated measures of health care treatment quality constructed with data from the 1979 to 2005 National Hospital Discharge Surveys and the 1987 to 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System records. Drawing upon traditional, remedy-centric tort reforms—e.g., damage caps—we estimate that the current liability system plays at most a modest role in inducing higher levels of health care quality. We contend that this limited independent role for medical liability may be a reflection upon the structural nature of the present system of liability rules, which largely hold physicians to standards determined according to industry customs. We find evidence suggesting, however, that physician practices may respond more significantly upon a substantive alteration of this system altogether—i.e., upon a change in the clinical standards to which physicians are held in the first instance."

See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/01/does-medical-malpractice-law-improve-health-care-quality.html#sthash.vYAfz9R5.dpuf

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