California Medical Malpractice Lawyers
California Professional Negligence Lawyers

The Scarlett Law Group are National Trial Lawyers based in San Francisco, California with outstanding results in cases involving automobile accidents, airplane crashes, traumatic brain injury, head injury, personal injury, catastrophic personal injuries, mass torts, medical malpractice , professional negligence, class actions, civil rights, environmental disasters and wrongful death.

Is There Really a Medical Malpractice Crisis in America?

• Bad doctors aren't stopped from practicing. Despite the high rate of malpractice, fewer than 3,000 doctors were disciplined in 1999 by State Medical Boards according to the Public Citizen Health Research Group. The Group also found that fewer than one-third of the country's disciplined doctors are prevented from practicing by the State Medical Boards and federal agencies charged with monitoring them. Public Citizen, Public Citizen's Health Research Group Ranking of State Medical Board's Serious Disciplinary Actions in 1999, April 2000. Public Citizen, Health Group Names 16,638 Questionable Doctors.

• Medical malpractice premiums comprise only 0.59% of national healthcare costs, according to the Consumer Federation of America. Eliminating medical malpractice lawsuits in total would do little to contain healthcare costs. Malpractice Suits Not Driving Medical Costs Up, Says Group, the New Orleans Times - Picayune, May 5, 1999, at E-3.

• Malpractice occurs too frequently in America. A 1999 Institute of Medicine study estimated that medical errors cause many as 98,000 deaths a year. That is about 268 deaths a day. The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC says that about three out of every 100 people admitted to hospitals suffer an "adverse event". An "adverse event" is defined as a health problem accidentally caused by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical personnel. Howard Isenstein, One More Time: Key Legislators Join Effort to Reduce Medical Errors, Mod. Physician, July 1, 2000 at 28. Michael Woods, At the Hospital, Ask Questions: It's the Informed Patient's Way to Avoid Errors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 2000 at D-4.

• Medical malpractice is actually one of the most profitable lines of insurance nationwide. Losses paid by insurers in 1993 for medical negligence amounted to only 33¢ out of every $100 of healthcare spending, according to insurance monitor A.M. Best. Taken from a specialty data base prepared by A.M. Best (1995). See also National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Report on Profitability 1997 (1999) noting that malpractice insurance profits are more than double property/casualty insurance profits.

• Medical malpractice claims do not clog our courts. Only 7% of all court claims in 1992 involved medical malpractice, according to the National Center for State Courts. Since 1987, malpractice claims have remained stable at about 7.7 claims per 100 physicians. Larry S. Stewart, Damage Caps Add to Pain and Suffering, incite on the news, November 7, 1994, at 20. David P. Olson, Measuring the Cost of Defensive Medicine , www.humana.com/providers/defensive.php4.

• So-called "defensive medicine" is not a problem. Insurers say that doctors, driven by fear of litigation, give too many tests and services to patients. But in the age of managed care, the idea that doctors give "too much care" is ridiculous. The problem is that the system now dispenses too little care. That's why Congress had to pass legislation outlining one-day "drive-through deliveries" of babies - HMO's wouldn't give enough care without being ordered to do so. Newborns & Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996, Pub.L No. 104-204.