PUBLIC CITIZEN PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: April 19, 2005

Most Recent Government Data Reveal Declining Malpractice Payouts; Real Crisis Continues to Be Inadequate Measures for Guaranteeing Patient Safety

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The latest national data on physician malpractice payments show no evidence that the spike in doctors' insurance rates is due to lawsuits by patients, a new study by Public Citizen confirms.

At the same time that insurance rates in some areas have been climbing, the number and total value of malpractice payouts to patients have been flat since 1991 and, in fact, show a significant decline since 2001, when the spike in insurance rates began, the study found.

"The hard, factual evidence cannot be any clearer: We have no medical malpractice lawsuit crisis in America," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "Insurance companies may be padding their bottom lines by jacking up rates on doctors, but it is not because of patients seeking relief for bad medical care through our courts. The true crisis continues to be in inadequate measures for patient safety and incompetent medical care by a small number of physicians."

The data show that from 1990 to 2004, only 5.5 percent of doctors account for 57.3 percent of all malpractice payments. In addition, only 11.4 percent of doctors who have made three or more malpractice payouts have ever been disciplined.

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