Study Characterizes Paid Claims for Catastrophic Medical Malpractice

​Catastrophic medical malpractice payouts in excess of $1 million represent 8% of all paid claims and average $1.4 billion per year, or 0.05% of the National Health Expenditures, according to the results of a study published in the July-August 2014 issue of the Journal for Healthcare Quality. The study, which reviewed all paid claims in the National Practitioner Data Bank data from 2004 to 2010, used multivariate regression to identify the characteristics of and risk factors for catastrophic and increased overall payouts. The researchers found that the factors most associated with catastrophic payouts were patient age less than one year; quadriplegia, brain damage, or lifelong care; and anesthesia-related allegations.