Meritorious Medical Malpractice Claims

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A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Department of Health Policy and Management, establishes that the vast majority of expenditures associated with medical malpractice litigation are expended on cases where preventable medical mistakes occurred and payments are made to the injured claimant. The study examined 14,052 closed malpractice claims from five liability insurers. They found only 3% of the claims had no verifiable medical injury and that 63% of the claims involved preventable medical errors. No compensation was paid in 84% of the cases without injury and 72% of the cases the investigators concluded there were no errors. 73% of the claims involving injuries due to error did result in compensation being paid. More than 25% of what were concluded to be meritorious cases received no compensation.