The cost of malpractice insurance to physicians has been increasing in recent years, as has the threat to physicians of being sued. This book describes and analyzes the workings of the market for physicians' liability insurance. The authors use their own data and other sources to study questions such as: Is the market for medical malpractice insurance competitive? Has the profitability of medical malpractice insurance been excessive? Why do malpractice insurers demand reinsurance? What effect has insurance regulation had on premiums? And it explores what experience rating is and how it is done.

Insuring Medical Malpractice

Business & Money

Sloan, Frank A.

Bovbjerg, Randall A.

Githens, Penny B.

Insurance

Oxford University Press

Medical malpractice suits today can result in multi-million-dollar settlements, and a practicing physician can pay $100,000 or more annually for malpractice insurance. Some complain that lawyers and plaintiffs are overcompensated by exorbitant judgments that add to the rising cost of health care. But there has been very little evidence to show whether these arguments are true. In this timely work, six experts in health policy, law, and medicine study nearly 200 malpractice claims to show that, contrary to popular perceptions, victims of malpractice are not overcompensated and our legal system for dealing with malpractice claims is not defective. The authors survey claims filed in Florida between 1986 and 1989 by people who suffered permanent injury or death during birth or during treatment in an emergency room. How often did illegitimate claims result in financial awards? What was the relation between the injury and the amount the patient lost economically? How much did the plaintiffs actually recover? How did the claimants choose their lawyers and what kind of relationship did they have? Contrary to common perceptions, in the majority of cases the claims were merited, and the authors found that claimants were on average substantially undercompensated—only about one-fifth of plaintiffs recovered more than their economic loss caused by injury or death. The evidence in this book suggests that placing dollar limits on malpractice cases is unjustified and that our tort system is not so faulty after all.

Suing for Medical Malpractice

Clayton, Ellen Wright

Hickson, Gerald B.

Economics

University of Chicago Press

Drinkers, Drivers, and Bartenders: Balancing Private Choices and Public Accountability

According to the United States Public Health Service, over 100,000 deaths a year are attributable to alcohol, including 20,000 highway fatalities. In response, legislatures have enacted various forms of regulation intended both to reduce alcohol consumption and to curb its harmful effects. This groundbreaking study focuses on one such form of regulation, the liability imposed on alcohol servers and social hosts by tort law. Basing their analysis on important new data from their extensive research and in-depth interviews with actors on all sides of the issue, the authors conclude that, despite their relative unpopularity, tort laws are very effective in reducing accidents—even more than criminal sanctions. Extraordinary in scope and exacting in detail, Drinkers, Drivers, and Bartenders: Balancing Private Choices and Public Accountability links alcohol problems, deterrence, and serving practices in a way no other work has been able to do and is certain to become a crucial reference point for researchers and policymakers alike.

Politics & Social Sciences

Whetten-Goldstein, Kathryn

Stout, Emily M.

Liang, Lan

Sociology

According to the United States Public Health Service, over 100,000 deaths a year are attributable to alcohol, including 20,000 highway fatalities. In response, legislatures have enacted various forms of regulation intended both to reduce alcohol consumption and to curb its harmful effects. This groundbreaking study focuses on one such form of regulation, the liability imposed on alcohol servers and social hosts by tort law. Basing their analysis on important new data from their extensive research and in-depth interviews with actors on all sides of the issue, the authors conclude that, despite their relative unpopularity, tort laws are very effective in reducing accidents—even more than criminal sanctions. Extraordinary in scope and exacting in detail, Drinkers, Drivers, and Bartenders: Balancing Private Choices and Public Accountability links alcohol problems, deterrence, and serving practices in a way no other work has been able to do and is certain to become a crucial reference point for researchers and policymakers alike.

A textbook that combines economic concepts with empirical evidence to explain in economic terms how health care institutions and markets function.
This book introduces students to the growing research field of health economics. Rather than offer details about health systems around the world without providing a theoretical context, Health Economics combines economic concepts with empirical evidence to enhance readers' economic understanding of how health care institutions and markets function. It views the subject in both microeconomic and macroeconomic terms, moving from the individual and firm level to the market level to a macroeconomic view of the role of health and health care within the economy as a whole.
The book includes discussion of recent empirical evidence on the U.S. health system and can be used for an undergraduate course on U.S. health economics. It also contains sufficient material for an undergraduate or masters course on global health economics, or for a course on health economics aimed at health professionals. It includes a chapter on nurses as well as a chapter on the economics of hospitals and pharmaceuticals, which can be used in master's courses for students in these fields. It supplements its analysis with readings (both classic and current), extensive references, links to Web sites on policy developments and public programs, review and discussion questions, and exercises. Downloadable supplementary material for instructors, including solutions to the exercise sets, sample syllabuses, and more than 600 slides that can be used for class presentations, is available at http://mitpress.mit.edu/health_economics. A student solutions manual with answers to the odd-numbered exercises is also available.

Health Economics

Hsieh, Chee-Ruey

Industries

Mit Pr

The new edition of a textbook that combines economic concepts with empirical evidence, updated with material on the Affordable Care Act and other developments.
This book introduces students to the growing research field of health economics. Rather than offer details about health systems without providing a theoretical context, Health Economics combines economic concepts with empirical evidence to enhance readers' economic understanding of how health care institutions and markets function. The theoretical and empirical approaches draw heavily on the general field of applied microeconomics, but the text moves from the individual and firm level to the market level to a macroeconomic view of the role of health and health care within the economy as a whole. The book takes a global perspective, with description and analysis of institutional features of health sectors in countries around the world. 
This second edition has been updated to include material on the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, material on the expansion of health insurance in Massachusetts, and an evaluation of Oregon's Medicaid expansion via lottery. The discussion of health care and health insurance in China has been substantially revised to reflect widespread changes there. Tables and figures have been updated with newly available data. Also new to this edition is a discussion of the health economics literature published between 2010 and 2015. 
The text includes readings, extensive references, review and discussion questions, and exercises. A student solutions manual offers solutions to selected exercises. Downloadable supplementary material is available for instructors.

Health Economics, second edition (Mit Press)

The MIT Press

What does a pack of cigarettes cost a smoker, the smoker's family, and society? This longitudinal study on the private and social costs of smoking calculates that the cost of smoking to a 24-year-old woman smoker is $86,000 over a lifetime; for a 24-year-old male smoker the cost is $183,000. The total social cost of smoking over a lifetime―including both private costs to the smoker and costs imposed on others (including second-hand smoke and costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security)―comes to $106,000 for a woman and $220,000 for a man. The cost per pack over a lifetime of smoking: almost $40.00. The first study to quantify the cost of smoking in this way, or in such depth, this accessible book not only adds a weapon to the arsenal of antismoking messages but also provides a framework for assessment that can be applied to other health behaviors. The findings on the effects of smoking on Medicare and Medicaid will be surprising and perhaps controversial, for the authors estimate the costs to be much lower than the damage awards being paid to 46 states as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.

The Price of Smoking (Mit Press)

Ostermann, Jan

Conover, Christopher

Jr., Donald H Taylor

Picone, Gabriel

MIT Press]

Medical Malpractice

A comprehensive analysis of medical malpractice from legal, medical, economic, and insurance perspectives that considers why past efforts at reform have not worked and offers recommendations for realistic, achievable policy changes.
Most experts would agree that the current medical malpractice system in the United States does not work effectively either to compensate victims fairly or prevent injuries caused by medical errors. Policy responses to a series of medical malpractice crises have not resulted in effective reform and have not altered the fundamental incentives of the stakeholders. In Medical Malpractice, economist Frank Sloan and lawyer Lindsey Chepke examine the U.S. medical malpractice process from legal, medical, economic, and insurance perspectives, analyze past efforts at reform, and offer realistic, achievable policy recommendations. They review the considerable empirical evidence in a balanced fashion and assess objectively what works in the current system and what does not. Sloan and Chepke argue that the complexity of medical malpractice stems largely from the interaction of the four discrete markets that determine outcomes -- legal, medical malpractice insurance, medical care, and government activity. After describing what the evidence shows about the functioning of medical malpractice, types of defensive medicine, and the effects of past reforms, they examine such topics as scheduling damages as an alternative to flat caps, jury behavior, health courts, incentives to prevent medical errors, insurance regulation, reinsurance, no-fault insurance, and suggestions for future reforms. Medical Malpractice is the most comprehensive treatment of malpractice available, integrating findings from several different areas of research and describing them accessibly in nontechnical language. It will be an essential reference for anyone interested in medical malpractice.

Chepke, Lindsey M.

MIT Press (MA)

A comprehensive analysis of medical malpractice from legal, medical, economic, and insurance perspectives that considers why past efforts at reform have not worked and offers recommendations for realistic, achievable policy changes.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sloan, Frank A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sloan, Frank A.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sloan, Frank A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Insuring Medical Malpractice

Suing for Medical Malpractice

Drinkers, Drivers, and Bartenders: Balancing Private Choices and Public Accountability

Drinkers, Drivers, and Bartenders: Balancing Private Choices and Public Accountability

Health Economics

Health Economics, second edition (Mit Press)

The Price of Smoking (Mit Press)

Medical Malpractice

Health Economics

Medical Malpractice