One of the arguments that is made against medical malpractice lawsuits — and it is a similar argument that is made to explain why costs relating to medical care are so high — is that doctors and medical institutions have to order “defensive” tests and medical procedures to protect themselves from liability.
In other words, they have no choice but to double- and triple-check things and to hold patients in the hospital for longer to make sure they didn’t make a mistake in treating the patient. That way, the patient has little-to-no legal recourse against the doctor or medical institution when their care is complete. This argument gets trotted around like it is fact — and thankfully, there is new evidence that contradicts this line of thinking.
The study essentially correlates this argument with a myth, saying that doctors are actually at less risk of liability than they actually believe. They are motivated to order defensive medical procedures because they believe they are more at risk of being held liable for mistakes.
Another study related to this new report found that nearly a quarter of medical procedures were considered defensive medical actions, and yet a mere 13 percent of healthcare costs were considered only partially attributed to defensive medical actions. At the same time, just 2.9 percent of costs were attributed to medical actions that were “completely defensive.”
Limiting medical malpractice lawsuits, capping payouts and generally restricting the ability of patients who have been negatively affected by medical mistakes does very little to curb medical costs.
Source: Washington Post, “Study: Don’t expect big health-care savings from medical malpractice reform,” Jason Millman, Oct. 15, 2014
