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Abstract

Despite intense interest, there have been few comprehensive studies characterizing differences in malpractice risk, by physician specialty. This prompted researchers to analyze national malpractice data on over 40,000 physicians in 24 specialties. They found large variation across specialties in the frequency of claims and the amount paid on claims. The data suggest that a majority of physicians face at least one claim during an extended career, though most claims do not result in a payment to the plaintiff.

Data are lacking, by medical specialty, on the share of physicians who face malpractice claims and the size of payments and cumulative incidence of such claims. Previous studies used older data with limited geographic coverage, relied on self-reports from limited samples with low response rates, or lacked information on physician specialty or payment size.