Malpractice?

<p>Some of the talk on other threads, esp. the one on "is going into medicine worth it", kinda took me by surprise by how much people were saying malpractice insurance costs for surgical specialties. Not to sound naive (though its probably too late), but I'm trying to figure out what I'm interested in and was just wondering how much malpractice usually costs on average. Also, do the salaries that are quoted for different specialties take into account malpractice insurance costs??? I would appreciate any feedback.....</p>

<p>salaries will not include malpractice costs. </p>

<p>actual malpractice costs will vary a lot from state to state, and even regions within a state (eg Philadelphia is probably higher than rural PA - there are well documented shortages of OB's in Philly proper). </p>

<p>There are currently 21 states in a full blown crisis according to the AMA , with another 26 showing signs of problems. The difference between states in crisis and those not are astounding. I read somewhere that a cardiologist in Miami will have medmal costs of over 75k, while the same cardiologist in LA will only have costs of about 12-15k. Those aren't exact figure, but the difference was that astounding, and may be more. Hospitals and clinics in states that are experience crises may offer to pay for medmal insurance simply b/c they can't get doctors to come there otherwise. </p>

<p>It certainly is something to consider, but should not deter you from a career in medicine if that is really what you want to do. As a current college student, don't worry about coming up with an idea of what area of medicine you want to practice. Most med students in the basic science years are still clueless, and it's hard to know until you've gotten into the clinical years. Now you should be looking at general characteristics of specialities, and not the exact "right" one. Do you like working with old people/kids/both? Do you like the idea of "doing something" to make someone better, or does the idea of balancing a number of different drugs intrigue you? What type of doctor/patient relationship do you want? Are you comfortable talking with people all day, or would you rather just look at their films and make a diagnosis? How well do you handle uncertainity in decision making? These are the types of questions that you should be asking yourself and will help you begin to narrow down your choices while leaving you open to realizing that you love ______ new subject that you knew nothing about before.</p>

<p>thanks, i'm not sure wat i want to do yet, i'm just trying to find out more about becoming a doctor</p>

<p>Here is a medical malpractice primer from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
<a href="http://www.rwjf.org/publications/synthesis/reports_and_briefs/pdf/no10_primer.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rwjf.org/publications/synthesis/reports_and_briefs/pdf/no10_primer.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Professional liability insurance premiums do vary dramatically by specialty and state. Neurosurgery, spine surgery and OB have the highest rates (up to $200K in some states); Indeed, recent residents finishing training in Pennsylvania are leaving the state in droves.</p>

<p>
[quote]
The high cost of medical malpractice insurance is a leading reason cited by new doctors for leaving Pennsylvania when their training is finished, according to a new survey. More than three-quarters of the medical residents surveyed said they planned to leave Pennsylvania, and almost half of those doctors said the cost of liability insurance was the reason for their departure.

[/quote]

<a href="http://medliabilitypa.org/news/index.php?NewsID=15%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://medliabilitypa.org/news/index.php?NewsID=15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>OB malpinsur is pretty high in CT as well, about 120 grand if your lucky per person if you take it as a group. Needless to say if you going into medicine today you won't be bathing in money like the doctors of the past. You will have enough to live a good lifestyle. Not excellent (with many homes, cars, tons of vacations), not poor.</p>

<p>its not the lifestyle im really worried about, I guess its kinda scary to hear that regardless of how good they are, certain specialties can almost be assured of getting sued every couple of years.....thanks for the input</p>

<p>A quick question, why are some malcractice insurence cost so high some states and low in others., arent politicians and doctor advocacy groups trying to fight this</p>

<p>also what is the insurence rate in other country,
I wouldnt mind living in switzerland? france?</p>

<p>It's also possible to get hired by a hospital which will give you a certain salary and benefits--including malpractice insurance. The result would be that you wouldn't have to worry about being sued as much, and hospitals in many cases are aware that those being sued aren't necessarily at fault (although if you were sued an abnormally large number of times, the hospital probably would want to look into that
).</p>

<p>Malpractice costs vary from state to state due differences in legal climate, statewide history of claims paid, and presence or absence of competing insurers in the state. </p>

<p>Doctors believe legal climate is in large part determined by the presence or absence of a cap on non-economic damages; the presence of a medical malpractice screening board also tends to limit frivolous lawsuits. </p>

<p>Lawyers believe profiteering insurance companies and increasing numbers of "bad" doctors have caused the increase in premiums.</p>

<p>Insurance companies blame the legal climate and the doctors.</p>

<p>For a decidedly "anti-lawyer" opinion on medical malpractice costs, see the 2003 article at Trial Lawyers Inc: <a href="http://www.triallawyersinc.com/html/part06.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.triallawyersinc.com/html/part06.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>wow, interesting article...</p>

<p>I dont think we really should worry about this, I mean after a while doctors will get fed up with it, and boycott, ie. stop seeing patiants or something. then by the time we become doctors, we might be in the clear. but for people that are going in right now, uh can someone say wrong place wrong time</p>

<p>my question sort of adds on to what loganr is saying. Doesn't anybody think that doctors will find some solution for this in the near future? It's obviously becoming a huge problem. Or maybe i'm just hoping that it'll be better by the time i get there (8-10 years from now)lol</p>

<p>Good question.......I was wondering that too.......wouldn't some sort of tort reform (i.e. England) help the situation as well as reward caps....?</p>

<p>im in the same boat w/jakem333 ,arjuncase2008?</p>

<p>I know Bush was calling for something along the lines of a cap (one of the few things that he and I agree on), but that was around the time of the 2004 elections and he probably doesn't care now that the democrats lost. </p>

<p>(John Edwards, the democratic VP candidate, was a malpractice lawyer for a long time before he got a congressional seat)</p>

<p>Hopefully places that have high medical malpractice costs will get their act together and realize that the lawsuits are only serving to hurt their communities. Studies have shown that lawsuits against doctors and medical groups have no effect on patient outcome in the future, for better or for worse. </p>

<p>On the other hand, how can you blame families for suing if something is wrong? Sure, the lawsuits in which something goes wrong for the patient that isn't the fault of the doctor (ie, infant born w/ a disease) are frivolous. America--and especially American juries-- are not willing to accept bad outcomes, whether or not anything could have been done about them.</p>

<p>However, when a hospital accidentally shuts off the oxygen to an infant's oxygen mask for 4 minutes, leaving him mentally retarded, rarely do you see hospitals step forward and say "we will give your infant free healthcare and round-the-clock nursing for life..we're sorry." Instead they seem to say "If you have a problem, you'll have to sue us." And then the family has no choice--it WILL cost them thousands if not millions to get extra care for their child.</p>

<p>To summarize: the whole system is whack.</p>