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Study Counters Doctors' Claims That Malpractice Insurance Is Rising TUESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- A new study challenges claims by the American Medical Association (AMA) and others that doctors are being driven out of business by rising malpractice insurance premiums. The analysis of AMA survey data collected from 1970 to 2000 found that self-employed physicians actually paid lower malpractice premiums in 2000 than they did in 1986. Based on year 2000 dollars, mean malpractice premiums increased from $5,934 in 1970 to $20,106 in 1986, and then declined to $15,478 in 1996. Premiums rose from 1996 until the AMA discontinued the surveys in 2000, when mean premiums were $18,400, still lower than 1986, the study said. But while malpractice premiums were falling from 1986 to 2000, all other physicians' practice expenses were rapidly increasing, the study authors noted. Premiums accounted for six percent of total practice expenses in 1970, 11 percent in 1986, six percent in 1996, and seven percent in 2000. The findings appear in the May/June issue of the journal Health Affairs. "The reported recent demise of medical practice as a result of rising malpractice premiums has been greatly exaggerated," Suffolk University law professor Marc Rodwin and his co-authors wrote. They said the AMA surveys "indicate that premiums have consistently been a small percentage of total practice expenses." For more on medical malpractice insurance, check out a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03702.pdf
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