Malpractice litigation and medical costs in the United States |
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| Authors: | Brandon Roberts Irving Hoch |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Premier Insights, Inc., Canton, MS, USA;2. Brandon Roberts is President of Premier Insights, Inc. a research consulting firm he founded in 1995. This paper is based on part of the senior author's PhD dissertation;3. he received his doctorate in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) [Correction made here after initial online publication].;4. School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA;5. Irving Hoch is Professor of Economics Emeritus at UTD, and served as co‐chair of the dissertation committee [Correction made here after initial online publication]. |
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| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship of medical malpractice litigation and medical costs in the United States. We relate medical malpractice settlements to medical costs for 190 metro and non‐metro areas in the United States over a 5‐year period and find that litigation is positively and significantly related to medical costs. Using a panel data set and a fixed‐effects specification, the estimates indicate that malpractice litigation accounts for roughly 2–10% of medical expenditures, with the impact exceeding the dollar amount of settlements. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | medical malpractice litigation medical costs medical expenditures |
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