JAMA Internal Medicine · 2014 · 85 citations · 2 references
Medical Malpractice LawHospital MedicinePrimary CareMalpracticeMedical LawPublic HealthHealth Services ResearchHealth PolicyDefensive Medicine,1Health InsuranceCost EffectivenessEconomic EvaluationHealthcare ValueHealth EconomicsMedical MalpracticeMalpractice LitigationPatient SafetyDefensive MedicineHealth Care CostMedicineEmergency Medicine
The overuse of tests and procedures due to fear of malpractice litigation, known as defensive medicine,1 is estimated to cost $46 billion annually in the US,2 but these costs have been measured only indirectly. We estimated the cost of defensive medicine on three hospital medicine services in a health system by having physicians assess the defensiveness of their own orders. We hypothesized that physicians who were concerned about being targeted by litigation would practice more defensively and have higher overall costs.
2
National Costs Of The Medical Liability System
Michelle M. Mello, Amitabh Chandra, Atul A. Gawande et al. · Health Affairs · 2010 · 487 citations