States that limit noneconomic damages in medical liability lawsuits have more physicians per 100,000 residents -- particularly in rural counties -- than states that don’t have such limits.
That’s the overall finding of research published in the May 31 issue of Health Affairs. (PDF file: 8 pages / 110 KB. More about PDFs.) The research, conducted at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, supports the medical community’s contention that medical liability reform plays a significant role in ensuring patients’ access to care. AAFP and other medical groups contend that high awards result in skyrocketing premiums that, in turn, drive physicians out of practice or out of state.
Using county-specific data from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Area Resource File, the researchers compared physician supply in 49 states, excluding Alaska, between 1985 and 2000. The researchers also referred to data from 1970 to 2000.
Among the findings:
- Counties in states that enacted caps between 1985 and 1987 saw a 102 percent increase in the number of doctors per 100,000 population from 1975 to 2000, compared with an 83 percent increase during the same period in states that did not have any caps.
- The amount of the cap affected physician-to-population ratios, particularly in rural areas. Between 1975 and 2000, rural counties in states with $250,000 caps saw a 48 percent increase in the number of physicians, compared with a 44 percent growth in physicians in rural areas of states with caps greater than $250,000.
- Between 1985 and 2000, compared with counties in states with no caps, counties in states with caps at any level had 2.18 percent more physicians per capita, and rural counties in states with caps had 3.24 percent more physicians per capita.
