​The rate of malpractice claims paid on behalf of U.S. physicians substantially declined between 1992 and 2014, according to an original investigation in the May 2017 issue of JAMA-Internal Medicine. The authors conducted a comprehensive analysis of all malpractice claims from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) between January 1, 1992, and December 31, 2014. The rate of claims dropped by 55.7% from 1992 to 2014. Although paid claims fell across the board, they varied from specialty to specialty. Pediatricians saw the greatest decease in claims, dropping by 75.8% (from 9.9 to 2.4 paid claims per 1,000 physician-years). Cardiologists had the smallest rate of decline, dropping by 13.5%. Even though the number of paid claims fell during the study, mean compensation amounts rose from $286,751 during the first four years of the study period to $353,473 from 2009 through 2014, an increase of 23.3%. The percentage of claims exceeding $1 million also increased slightly during the study period. The authors said the reasons behind the increases were unclear, but could be because attorneys are increasingly unwilling to take cases with smaller potential payoffs. Diagnostic errors were the most common allegation, present in 31.8% of paid claims. Future research should focus on what caused the variation among specialties and what caused the increase in mean payment of claims, the authors said.

HRC Recommends: Rates of malpractice claims paid, as well as the amounts paid in compensation, are important barometers of risk within specialties and across organizations. Risk managers may wish to compare the data above with claims paid in their own organizations and share their findings with appropriate clinical and administrative leaders.