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Myth and Reality: The Threat of Medical Malpractice Claims by Low Income Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Karen H. Rothenberg
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Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , Winter 1992 , pp. 403 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1992

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References

Mussman, Mary G., Zawistowich, Lu, Weisman, Carol S., Malitz, Faye E. and Morelock, Laura, “Medical Malpractice Claims Filed by Medicaid and Non-Medicaid Recipients in Maryland,” 265 JAMA 2992 (June 12, 1991).Google Scholar
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Emphasis added. § 51-1-29.1 of Georgia Code provides:Google ScholarGoogle ScholarGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
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Supra note 1 at 1278. (“Pregnant women on Medicaid or with no insurance are included in most practitioners' definitions of “high risk,” because these women more often receive no prenatal care and exhibit other indications of pregnancy complications such as inadequate diet and high stress.”) and Supra note 1 at 1991.Google Scholar
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A survey of New York physicians in 1989 found that “on average, physicians estimate that 19.5 out of one hundred of their colleagues will be sued in a given year, approximately three times the actual rate, with significant differences by specialty, location, and suit history …. High risk specialties (obstetrics, orthopedics, and neurosurgery) had a perceived risk of being sued that was almost three times that of low-risk specialties (internal medicine and associated subspecialties) and 76 percent higher than the overall average perceived risk of 19.5 suits per one hundred physicians.” “Physicians' Perceptions of the Risk of Being Sued,” Lawthers, A.G., Localio, A.R., Laird, N.M. et al., Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 17:3, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Empirical evidence suggests providers can reduce actual malpractice claims by all socioeconomic groups by improving communications with patients. Hickson, Gerald, Clayton, Ellen Wright, Githens, Penney, and Sloan, Frank, “Factors that Prompted Families to File Medical Malpractice Claims Following Perinatal Injuries,” 267 JAMA 1359–1363 (March 11, 1992). A recent study, which surveyed 127 Floridian families who had filed claims for birth-related injuries, examined the reasons why families filed lawsuits. The reasons cited are illuminating: While 24% filed to obtain funds for long-term care, 20% filed when they realized the child had “no future”; 19% wanted to deter future incidents of malpractice or obtain revenge on the physician; 33% filed because someone, often another doctor, advised them to file, (or alternatively, the families interpreted subsequent treating physician comments as recognition of an injury or advice to sue); 24% filed because their physician was not honest about the circumstances of the injury; and 20% filed because it was the only way the families could determine what caused the injury. Families believed physicians failed to recognize fetal distress (53% of sample), manage fetal distress properly (57%), or perform a caesarean section (33%) or that physicians were unavailable when needed (29%).Google Scholar
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Of course, this conclusion may change in the context, for example, of women and the AIDS epidemic. When HIV begins to affect increasing numbers of white, middle class women, the risk calculus may be altered. This group of women may be more likely to recognize the occurrence of an injury, better able to afford to sue, more likely to have family members able to press the suit, and more likely to recover a larger judgment.Google Scholar