Which state has the highest malpractice insurance?
In 2020, the value of direct premiums earned by the medical professional liability insurance market in the United States was highest in the state of New York.
New York has the highest rate of medical malpractice in the U.S., with an average of 1.25 malpractice reports per practitioner between 1990 and 2023, according to a study from personal injury law firm Gatti, Keltner, Bienvenu & Montesi based on government records from the National Practitioner Data Bank.
Any physician doing invasive surgery will pay higher medical malpractice insurance rates than physicians performing no surgery. For the same reasons OB/GYNs pay more, surgeons pay higher rates too.
What the Data Says. According to a study conducted by the American Medical Association (AMA), OB/GYN providers have one of the highest rates of malpractice, with more than 62% of physicians being sued at some point throughout their career.
How Much Does Medical Malpractice Insurance Cost? On average, medical malpractice insurance costs $7,500 per year. However, rates vary depending on several factors, including location and the type of doctor seeking coverage. Surgeons tend to pay between $30k and $50k in annual premiums.
Other Factors to Consider
By just looking at one element of that—medical malpractice payouts by state over a full decade—New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and New Jersey have the highest payouts total. Meanwhile, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, and Alaska are among the lowest.
Montana. Montana is the best state for doctors, and it has one of the top hospital systems in the country, with 82.5% of patients giving their hospital a score of 9 or 10 out of 10. Montana doctors also receive high wages.
OB/GYNs pay high malpractice insurance premiums due to the high-risk nature of birth and delivery.
- Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.
- Failure to treat.
- Prescription drug errors.
- Surgical or procedural errors.
- Childbirth injuries.
Severity of Claims with Larger Payouts
The severity of the filed claims and the resulting higher financial settlements for plaintiffs were the key factors. A June 2022 article from Medscape Medical News noted insurers' concern over the increasing occurrence of “record-high verdicts” in U.S. malpractice cases.
What doctors are least likely to be sued?
Medical specialty
About 62% of ob-gyns and 59.3% of general surgeons had been sued in their careers to date, compared to 7% allergists/immunologists and 8% of hematologists/oncologists who are at lowest risk.
The Largest Medical Malpractice Settlements in U.S. History
Considered one of the largest settlements in recent history, a Florida jury awarded Allan Navarro $216.7 million ($100.1 million in punitive damages) after he was left brain-damaged and confined to a wheelchair after doctors misdiagnosed stroke symptoms.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the average medical malpractice settlement in the United States is $329,565. However, every case is unique and the settlement of a particular case will depend on the strength of the proof of negligence and the damages that resulted.
| Specialty | Approximate Claims Made Rate | Approximate Tail Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency Medicine | $33,000 | $66,000 |
| Family Practice No Surgery | $16,000 | $32,000 |
| General Surgery | $61,000 | $122,000 |
| Internal Medicine No Surgery | $17,000 | $34,000 |
The premiums you pay for malpractice insurance are generally tax-deductible. This means that you can deduct these costs from your taxable income when you file your taxes. This can help to offset the cost of insurance and reduce your tax liability.
Liability Limits
The state has a strict $250,000 limit on noneconomic damages in cases of medical malpractice per claimant in lawsuits against individual health care providers. This limit applies regardless of how many defendants the suit names.
Best states for a Surgeon
Our research shows that Maine is the best state in the country for surgeons.
West Virginia has the worst health care in the nation.
Though West Virginia ranks No. 3 for accessibility, it has the worst health outcomes of any state, with the highest rate of preventable deaths (1,229 deaths per 100,000 residents) and diabetes mortalities.
1. Wisconsin – $397K. In Wisconsin, doctors earned an average of $397,000 in 2022 — edging ever closer to the $400,000 mark.
Massachusetts, Hawaii, and New Hampshire top the 2023 State Scorecard rankings for health system performance, based on 58 measures of health care access, quality, use of services, costs, health disparities, reproductive care and women's health, and health outcomes.
What three factors affect medical malpractice insurance rates?
- Risk One: The Amount of Coverage You Buy. It's a simple idea. ...
- Risk Two: The Type of Policy You Select. ...
- Risk Three: Previous Claims History. ...
- Risk Four: Your Specialty. ...
- Risk Five: Location of the Practice. ...
- Risk Six: Your Working Hours. ...
- Risk Seven: Staff Size.
Misdiagnosis. Diagnosis is the foundation of medicine and patient care, which is also the likely reason errors in diagnosis are the most common type of medical error leading to medical malpractice lawsuits.
A specialized type of professional liability insurance, medical malpractice insurance provides coverage to physicians and other medical professionals for liability arising from disputed services that result in a patient's injury or death.
Perhaps the most difficult to prove of the four elements of medical malpractice is that there was a breach of the duty owed by the doctor or another medical professional. There are many ways this can occur, and it can be difficult or impossible to pinpoint how it happened without help from a medical expert.
To do so, four legal elements must be proven: (1) a professional duty owed to the patient; (2) breach of such duty; (3) injury caused by the breach; and (4) resulting damages.
