Health Affairs

Posting date: May 31, 2005

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Health Affairs, 10.1377/hlthaff.w5.250
Copyright © 2005 by Project HOPE

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Have State Caps On Malpractice Awards Increased The Supply Of Physicians?

William E. Encinosa ^1* Fred J. Hellinger ²

¹ William Encinosa is a senior economist in the Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in Rockville, Maryland.
² Fred Hellinger is a senior economist in the Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in Rockville, Maryland.

^*Corresponding author.

Abstract

Twenty-seven states have laws that cap payments for noneconomic damages in malpractice cases. In this study we examined whether these laws have increased the supply of physicians, using county-level data from all fifty states from 1985 to 2000. Counties in states with a cap had 2.2 percent more physicians per capita because of the cap, and rural counties in states with a cap had 3.2 percent more physicians per capita. Rural counties in states with a $250,000 cap had 5.4 percent more obstetrician-gynecologists and 5.5 percent more surgical specialists per capita than did rural counties in states with a cap above $250,000.

Key Words: Business Of Health, Consumer Issues, Health Reform, Legal/Regulatory Issues, Physicians, Rural Health Care, State/Local Issues, Health Spending

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