After over a decade of declining rates for medical malpractice insurance, industry experts are saying that medical malpractice insurance rates may begin to trend upwards. This prediction is based on 2014 data from the National Practitioners Data Bank (NPDB) that shows medical malpractice insurance payouts increasing for the second year in a row.
According to an article in the June 15, 2015 Insurance Journal-National, the NPDB data released in 2014 showed an increase of 4.4 percent in medical malpractice payouts, bringing the national total to $3.9 billion.
New York was the highest in terms of per capita payout, followed by New Jersey. In Florida, the total payout for medical malpractice insurance claim payouts was $236,204,600, up 18.94% from 2013.
When payment amounts were analyzed by malpractice allegation, the leader was Failure to Diagnose (33%), followed by Surgery (24%) and Treatment (19%).
The article predicts that, if this trend of rising medical malpractice insurance payouts continues, the national payout for medical malpractice insurance claims could top $4 billion in 2015. This trend could well cause medical malpractice insurance companies to reevaluate rates to determine if they are still valid in light of this trend upwards.
