Medical malpractice costs are growing at the slowest rate in a 14-year period, according to insurance broker Aon. The company has projected zero growth in the number of medical malpractice claims.
The 2013 Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmark report was released by Aon Risk Solutions and the American Society of Healthcare Risk Management. In 2013, the rate of growth in medical malpractice costs has been the smallest in the 14 years that the annual report has been produced.
Erik Johnson, the author of the report and the health care practice leader for the Actuarial and Analytics Practice of Aon, said that in addition to the zero growth in the number of claims, other geographic, technological and societal forces that can affect health care professional liability claims were largely in check, leading to a low inflationary environment.
For the first time this year, Aon used hospital admissions and revenue data to measure the cost of medical malpractice. According to estimates in the report for 2014, approximately 60 cents will be spent on medical malpractice claims for every $100 in hospital revenue.
The data in the report is compiled using a database of 118 U.S. health care systems, representing 28 percent of U.S. hospitals. The data collected includes 103,379 claims representing $16.6 billion in costs. The database contains information about claims over a 10-year period.