Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:Introduction to Health Care and Public Health in the U.S.
Unit:Financing Health Care - Part 2
Lecture:Methods of Controlling Rising Medical Costs
Slide content:Tort Reform Frivolous lawsuits No lawsuits for expected complications Damage caps Limit punitive awards Limit attorney fees Pain and suffering Binding arbitration 21
Slide notes:Defensive medicine drives up costs by spending health care dollars on tests and procedures that have minimal clinical value to avoid malpractice. Estimates of the cost of defensive medicine run into the billions of dollars annually. Tort reform has been suggested as a means of lowering health care expenditures by avoiding the cost of defensive medicine. Some suggestions for tort reform include boards to review the validity of a claim to weed out frivolous lawsuits. Federal laws could prohibit the filing of lawsuits for the occurrence of known potential complications to which a patient was advised. Additional suggestions include limits on punitive awards, attorneys fees, and on payments for pain and suffering, as well as arbitration in certain cases. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 4.0 21