Myths about Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice seems to be a major issue in the political realm and in efforts to make reforms to some of the medical malpractice policies many myths have been spread around.

It is important to be able to differentiate between what is myth and what is fact concerning medical malpractice. There are four especially large myths in the United States that need to be dispelled and those are the myths that there is too much litigation concerning medical malpractice, that medical costs are skyrocketing due to the amount of medical malpractice lawsuits, that medical malpractice costs are rising due to so many lawsuits against medical professionals, and lastly that many people are attempting to get undeserved compensation by making false claims of medical malpractice.

The first myth to be dispelled is that there is too much medical malpractice litigation today. All statistics seem to show that there is an increasing amount of medical malpractice occurring in the United States and only small percentages of those are actually ever being litigated. Current studies seem to prove that instead of there being too much litigation there actually is not enough medical malpractice litigation because the statistics keep rising, and the numbers of cases being litigated has not increased significantly. These percentages show that not only are injured people not getting compensation, but also medical professionals are getting away with medical malpractice and never being disciplined.

The second myth seems to imply that medical costs in the United States are skyrocketing and these rising medical costs are due to the amount of medical malpractice cases that are litigated. With such a small percentage of payouts actually being made to patients in medical malpractice cases this is a very big myth. The facts actually show that it is the cost of treatments for people who have suffered from medical practice that actually drive the cost of medical cost up, and therefore bringing down the incidents of medical malpractice would result in lower health care costs.

Another myth that needs to be dispelled with facts is the myth that medical malpractice lawsuits are responsible for driving up the rates of malpractice insurance premiums for medical professionals. If you look over a variety of years at the costs of medical malpractice insurance you can see that there are certain trends and a cyclical trend to the costs of this insurance. There have been various times when the premiums have gone up but the rate of malpractice litigation seems to have nothing to do with these cyclical hikes in premiums.
Lastly there seems to be a myth that many people are attempting to use medical malpractice litigation as a way to receive compensation they do not deserve. It is very unusual for these claims to actually make it as far as the courtroom and they usually are weeded out by lawyers who understand how the system works. If they do make it to trial almost all of these cases are ruled in favor of the medical professional or medical institution.

It is important if you are involved in a medical malpractice case, or you believe that you have suffered medical malpractice that you are aware of what is myth and what the facts actually are. If you have any doubts to whether or not your claim may be valid you should seek the advice of our lawyers that deal with medical malpractice cases. Contact us today.