April 6, 2022 by matray

A jury in Jackson County, Mo., awarded a record $25.4 million medical negligence judgment todau against Kelli Sandri, MD, for failing to properly treat a mother in labor. The child suffered permanent birth injuries due to a lack of oxygen.

After a two-week trial, the jury determined Sandri violated her duty of care when improperly supervising a student doctor with respect to the administration of Pitocin medication used to speed up labor. Fetal monitoring equipment demonstrated more than six hours of excessive Pitocin administration, resulting in a loss of oxygen to the baby’s brain that caused cerebral palsy.

The jury awarded $18,972,000 for ongoing medical care and damages for the plaintiffs, as well as $5 million for past and future pain, suffering and disfigurement. The Greater Kansas City Jury Verdict Service referred to the verdict as the highest for medical malpractice in the metropolitan area’s history.

November 15, 2021 by matray

A jury in Vermilion County, Illinois, reached a verdict of more than $14.75 million today in a medical malpractice action brought against Presence Hospitals, PRV, the former operator of the Presence United Samaritans Medical Center in Danville, Ill. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of L.B., a disabled person, through her guardian CIBC Bank USA.

The lawsuit alleged that Presence, individually and through its agents, was negligent in the medical care and treatment provided to L.B. while she was an inpatient at Presence United Samaritans Medical Center on April 22, 2014. L.B. was pregnant with twins and underwent a cesarean section procedure by the obstetrician on call, Mohannad Rajjoub, MD. Following the delivery of the twins, Rajjoub attempted to remove L.B.'s placenta when she had a condition known as placenta accreta, in which the placenta attaches deeply into the uterine wall. As a result, plaintiff presented evidence that the placenta was torn, and L.B. suffered massive hemorrhaging resulting in hypoxic brain injury and seizure like activity.

The plaintiff further alleged that negligent conduct of the anesthesiologist, Damon Green, MD, contributed to L.B.'s injuries. Plaintiff presented evidence that following the massive hemorrhage, L.B. did not receive proper resuscitative care which contributed to the hypoxia. This evidence included that no blood was available in the operating room for transfusion and that more than 30 minutes elapsed before the first transfusion was begun.

Plaintiff's medical expert in rehabilitation testified that L.B. sustained a severe and diffuse brain injury with global consequences, and that her intellectual age is 3 years, 3 months with an estimated IQ less than 34. L.B. is virtually totally dependent on all aspects of daily life and will require 24-hour, life-long care.

Presence Hospitals denied that Rajjoub and Green were its agents. It further maintained at trial that L.B. was not stable for transfer to a different hospital and required an emergency c-section during which the doctors and the hospital each acted within the standard of care.

The jury awarded the plaintiff a total of $14,756,744.03 consisting of $3 million each for loss of a normal life and pain and suffering, $7.4 million for future medical and caretaking expenses and $1,356,744.03 for past medical expenses.

   

May 7, 2025 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the May 2025 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in their entirety, please subscribe today.

Pregnancy-Related Deaths Surge Nearly 28% in U.S., Widening Racial and Geographic Disparities
A new national analysis published in JAMA Network Open last month reveals a 27.7% surge in pregnancy-related deaths in the United States between 2018 and 2022, highlighting urgent public health concerns and persistent disparities by race, socioeconomic status and geography. As maternal mortality rates climb — especially in states with under-resourced healthcare systems and enduring racial, socioeconomic and geographic inequities — claims related to obstetric and postpartum care can be expected to increase in both frequency and severity …

CARE RRG Placed into Rehabilitation by Vermont Court
The Vermont Superior Court for Washington County last month ordered CARE Risk Retention Group into rehabilitation due to concerns over the medical professional liability insurer’s “hazardous financial condition” …

AM Best Maintains ‘Stable’ Outlook for Medical Professional Liability Segment
AM Best is maintaining its “Stable” outlook for the U.S. medical professional liability insurance segment in 2025, citing strong capital positions, favorable investment conditions and the industry’s proven resilience amid a complex operating environment …

Medical Societies Urge Ohio Supreme Court to Review Reversal of Defense Verdict in Malpractice Case
The Ohio State Medical Association, American Medical Association, Ohio Hospital Association and Ohio Osteopathic Association filed an amicus curiae memorandum last month urging the Supreme Court of Ohio to accept jurisdiction over the appeal in Rau v. Miami Valley Hospital et al. The Court of Appeals of Ohio 2nd Appellate District reversed a defense verdict on Jan. 3, citing prejudicial error by the trial court in admitting evidence related to informed consent, discussions of specific procedural risks and cumulative expert testimony …

Calif. AG Warns Insurers to Comply with Law Protecting MedMal Coverage for Reproductive, Gender-Affirming Care
California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently sent letters to 15 medical professional liability insurance companies, reminding them of their obligations under Assembly Bill 571 and requesting copies of their policies to demonstrate compliance with the law. AB 571 provides protections for California healthcare providers who offer often-contentious services such as abortion, contraception and gender-affirming care …

Missouri Jury Awards Record $48.1M Verdict in Birth Injury Case
A St. Louis County jury recently awarded the largest medical malpractice verdict in Missouri history for an infant neurologically injured at birth. The $48.1 million verdict surpassed the previous record of $34.1 million set in a 2021 case against CoxHealth Hospital in Springfield, Mo. …

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February 7, 2025 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the February 2025 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in their entirety, please subscribe today.

Oregon Supreme Court to Determine MPL Limits in Non-Patient’s Death
The Oregon Supreme Court last month heard oral arguments in a case seeking to define the limits of medical professional liability in situations involving non-patient third parties. The case, Stone v. Witt, involves Shantel Witt, who, while impaired by prescribed medication, crashed her car into bicyclist Marika Stone. Witt was subsequently convicted of first-degree manslaughter, driving under the influence of intoxicants, unlawful possession of oxycodone and unlawful possession of a Schedule IV controlled substance. She was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. In addition to suing Witt for civil damages, Stone’s estate filed medical negligence claims against Nancy Brennan, DO, and her employer St. Charles Health System, Inc.; Kevin Rueter, MD, and his employer High Desert Personal Medicine, LLC; and Walgreen Co., doing business as Walgreens Pharmacy …

California AG Issues Advisory on use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a legal advisory last month to healthcare entities that develop, sell or use artificial intelligence (AI) regarding their obligations under California law. The advisory — Application of Existing California Law to Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare — provides specific guidance for healthcare providers, insurers, vendors, investors and other entities involved in the development, sale and use of AI and automated decision-making systems …

New Mexico Leaders Push for MedMal Reform to Address Physician Shortage
The Democratic governor of New Mexico and the state’s House Republican caucus independently announced last month that addressing medical professional liability costs to attract more healthcare workers to the state would be a priority during the 2025 legislative session. Healthcare workers were identified as the top occupational need in 28 of New Mexico’s 33 counties, according to the most recent data …

Georgia Gov. Kemp Names Tort Reform Top Priority, Threatens to Call Special Session If General Assembly Fails to Act
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp used his recent State of the State Address to declare tort reform his top legislative priority for the year, warning lawmakers that he would call a special session if they failed to pass legislation curbing the rising costs of civil liability awards. While Gov. Kemp’s office had yet to release specific policy proposals by press time, the insurance commissioner’s report resulting from the Data Analysis for Tort Reform Act — which the governor referenced in his address — provides insight into how the General Assembly might proceed …

Massachusetts High Court Rejects Appeal on ‘High-Low’ Agreement Bias
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last month upheld a trial judge’s decision to deny a medical malpractice defendant’s request to cross-examine witnesses about a “high-low” settlement agreement reached by two other defendants. High-low agreements set minimum and maximum amounts a defendant will pay the plaintiff prior to the jury rendering a verdict …

Federal Agencies Warn of Private Equity’s Increasing Role in Healthcare
The Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice and Department of Health & Human Services published a joint report last month detailing concerns about the “new and unique” risks associated with the increasing role of private equity in healthcare delivery. The report, titled “Consolidation in Healthcare Markets Request for Information,” urges the U.S. Congress and state lawmakers to implement stricter oversight, including lowering the financial threshold for reporting mergers and expanding transparency rules for ownership structures in healthcare facilities …

Women, Minorities Bear the Brunt of Medical Misdiagnoses
An estimated 795,000 patients a year die or are permanently disabled because of misdiagnosis. Some patients are at higher risk than others. Women and racial / ethnic minorities are 20% to 30% more likely than white men to experience a misdiagnosis …

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December 12, 2024 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the December 2024 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in their entirety, please subscribe today.

How the 2024 Elections Could Affect the MPL Insurance Industry
Elections have consequences. And with the 2024 U.S. election cycle in the American rearview mirror, industry leaders are doing their best to decipher what those consequences — good or bad — might be for their business. With unified Republican control of the executive and legislative branches of government, will the GOP agenda be able to tame the economic inflation — much less social inflation — that is challenging the medical professional liability industry’s claims and operations costs? Is the Holy Grail of passing federal damage caps finally a possibility? And what were the outcomes of key races for governorships and state legislatures, where most medical liability reforms are typically enacted? …

New Mexico Jury Awards Record $412 Million Medical Liability Verdict
A New Mexico jury awarded more than $412 million last month to a man in a medical malpractice case involving NuMale Medical, a national chain of men’s health clinics. According to the plaintiff’s attorneys, it is the largest amount ever awarded by a jury for a medical malpractice claim in the United States …

DWP, Investment Gains Offsetting Underwriting Difficulties for MPL Specialty Writers
Direct written premium and investment income continued to rise during the third quarter of 2024, insulating the industry from continued underwriting losses …

Report on Digital Health Services Highlights Insurance Coverage Gaps
Digital health services are rapidly augmenting how healthcare is delivered in the United States. A new white paper, 2024 Digital Health Insurance Report, shares insights from medical professional liability insurance agents surveyed about the risks associated with using digital health services and how their clients are contemplating insurance coverage for these exposures …

Michigan Supreme Court Asked to Weigh Constitutionality of Medical Liability Damage Caps
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan last month requested that the Michigan Supreme Court certify legal questions regarding the constitutionality of the state’s cap on noneconomic damages in medical liability lawsuits …

Iowa Supreme Court Reverses, Remands State’s Largest Medical Malpractice Verdict
The Iowa Supreme Court last month reversed and remanded a $97.4 million medical liability verdict from 2022 — the largest of its kind in state history — for a violation of the hearsay rule. This decision paves the way for a new trial …

Ambiguous Abortion Bans Fueling New ‘Hesitant Medicine’
Abortion bans are intended to reduce elective abortions, but they also affect the way physicians practice medicine. Key finding from a recently published article in the journal Social Science & Medicine finds that abortion bans with criminal penalties are driving the new phenomenon of “hesitant medicine,” where providers are forced to prioritize their own criminal legal risks over the well-being of their patients and hesitate to provide the treatment their patients require …

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February 8, 2024 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the February 2024 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in entirety, please subscribe today.

Florida Looks to Impose Noneconomic Damage Caps, End ‘Free Kill’ Law
A bill that would end a Florida law denying recoverable damages for certain wrongful death medical liability claims and impose noneconomic damage caps on medical malpractice awards cleared a key hurdle last month when it was approved by the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee …

New York Gov. Hochul Vetoes Bill Expanding Recoverable Wrongful Death Damages
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed for a second time the Grieving Families Act, a bill that would have expanded recoverable damages in wrongful death claims to include noneconomic damages. Under the current 177-year-old law, compensable damages in wrongful death actions are limited to economic loss only. New York and Alabama are the only two states that currently restrict family members from seeking recovery for their emotional suffering by limiting recoverable damages to the deceased’s earning potential …

Ohio Statute of Repose ‘Means What It Says,’ Applies to Wrongful Death
The Supreme Court of Ohio finally put to rest the issue of whether the state’s statute of repose for medical claims applies to wrongful death claims on Dec. 28, 2023, answering the long-discussed question in the affirmative …

Iowa Advances Bill to Pierce State’s Medical Malpractice Statute of Repose
Iowa lawmakers advanced a bill last month that would remove time requirements for filing a medical liability lawsuit against healthcare providers who conceal a cause of injury. Iowa law currently imposes a strict six-year statute of repose on medical liability claims, except those involving medical equipment left in a patient’s body post-surgery. If the bill becomes law, there will be no constraint for patients whose cause of injury or death was concealed by a healthcare provider …

Developing Safe Harbors to Address Malpractice Liability, Wasteful HealthCare Spending
With U.S. healthcare spending expected to exceed $7.2 trillion annually by 2031, the push to reduce healthcare resource utilization will only intensify in the coming years. Evidence suggests inpatient spending declines by about 5% — with no significant change in patient outcomes — when the threat of malpractice liability is removed. Current guidelines aimed at reducing waste do not account for the potential impact of medical liability and therefore may miss an opportunity to reduce spending without harming patients …

MPL Association Publishes Report on Industry’s 2023 Midyear Results
The Medical Professional Liability (MPL) Association recently published its Medical Professional Liability Insurance Sector Report: 2023 Midyear Financial Performance. This semiannual report provides insights into the MPL insurance market’s financial performance with commentary on the internal and external forces impacting insurer performance. Based on their review of the industry’s loss data, the report’s authors anticipate that frequency will likely remain flat at around 8,000 annual paid claims going forward, while average severity will continue its relentless climb …
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Subscribe today to get this issue (as well as the 2023 Annual Rate Survey at no additional cost).

March 7, 2023 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the March 2023 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in entirety, please subscribe today.

Curi, Constellation to Merge into Organization with National Scope
Curi Holdings and Constellation Inc. last month announced the signing of a merger agreement. Combined, the two organizations intend to build on their legacies of mutual ownership, client service and innovation, while creating a national brand that delivers the products, services and advice that healthcare providers need to thrive in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. With more than $2 billion of consolidated assets and generating nearly $400 million in annual revenue, the merged companies will serve more than 50,000 physicians, healthcare providers and organizations across the United States. With minimal geographic overlap between the two companies, the merger positions the combined organization to continue meeting its member-owners wherever they are in their own evolutionary journey …

Iowa Enacts Hard Cap on Medical Liability Noneconomic Damages
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds last month signed a bill into law that limits noneconomic damages to $2 million for medical liability verdicts involving permanent impairment, disfigurement or death against hospitals and $1 million for those types of verdicts against clinics and individual doctors. The state had already capped most medical malpractice awards at $250,000, but had included an exception for those involving permanent impairment, disfigurement or death, for which there was no cap …

Arkansas Weaponizing Medical Malpractice Law to Restrict Transgender Youth Care
An Arkansas Senate panel advanced a bill last month that would make it easier to file medical liability lawsuits against doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors. The proposed Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act of 2023 would create civil liability for any doctor who “performs a gender transition procedure on a minor … if the minor is injured, including without limitation any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological injury, by the gender transition procedure, related treatment, or the after effects.” The bill would also grant potential plaintiffs an up-to-30-year statute of limitations for filing a medical liability claim against a doctor who provided them with gender-affirming care as a minor. All other medical liability claims are subject to a two-year statute of limitations under Arkansas law …

Prior Paid Claims Are Predictive of Future Malpractice Claims
Physicians often view malpractice claims as mostly random events that reflect bad luck, rather than a lack of clinical skill. But a paper published Feb. 13 in JAMA Health Forum that examined all paid medical liability claims against U.S. physicians between 2004 and 2018 uncovered strong evidence that paid claims are far from random. Rather, physicians with even a single paid claim are far more likely than those with no paid claims to pay additional claims in the future. The effect held regardless of specialization or whether a doctor’s prior malpractice claims had been disclosed publicly, which suggests that in an average case, patients and attorneys who sued were unlikely to be acting on the belief that they could win a case in a risky subfield or against a vulnerable doctor ...

Nearly a Quarter of Inpatient Visits Had an Adverse Patient Safety Event
Almost a quarter (23.6%) of the inpatient hospital visits in Massachusetts during 2018 had at least one adverse patient safety event, and almost a quarter (22.7%) of those patient safety issues were preventable, according to a new study from Mass General Brigham and CRICO, the medical professional liability insurer for the Harvard medical community and its affiliated organizations ...

Medical Liability Tort Fix Blocked by New Mexico House Panel
The Health & Human Services Committee of the New Mexico House of Representatives last month blocked a bill that would have capped recoverable damages at $750,000 for medical malpractice claims against outpatient facilities not owned or controlled by a hospital. Those facilities otherwise face a $5 million cap set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2024, as part of the state’s 2021 overhaul of its Medical Malpractice Act …

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December 12, 2022 by matray

Study Shows Wide Variance Among States’ Malpractice Costs
Physicians, nurses and healthcare workers in the state of New York suffered the largest number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed between 2012 and 2022, while those in Wisconsin experienced the fewest filings during the same period, according to a study published online last month. Ohio incurred the most expensive medical liability reports during the 10-year period with 2,325 medical liability filings costing its healthcare industry more than $853 million, while New York ranked No. 40 with a total costs to its industry at $6.85 million …

Alaska Supreme Court Overturns Law Limiting Awards in Some Medical Malpractice Cases
The Alaska Supreme Court determined last month that a 1976 law limiting financial awards in medical liability lawsuits for Alaskans with health insurance is unconstitutional. The statute at issue, AS 09.55.548(b), provided that when a medical malpractice claimant’s losses have already been compensated in part by a collateral source, such as a health insurer, the claimant’s damages award will be reduced by the value of the collateral source compensation, except when the collateral source is a “federal program that by law must seek subrogation” …

Favorable Reserve Development for MPL Specialty Insurers During Third Quarter
Medical Liability Monitor’s quarterly analysis conducted by Milliman Inc. indicates the MPL industry reported a cumulative favorable development through the third quarter of approximately $22 million on reserves related to prior years. This reflects an improvement relative to the same point in 2021 and 2020 through the third quarter. Third-quarter 2021 saw $200,000 of adverse reserve development, while third-quarter 2020 saw adverse reserve development of nearly $40 million. This favorable reserve development further supports our anticipation that the 2022 annual financial results will also reflect some reserve redundancy. However, how much reserve redundancy remains uncertain …

Ohio Supreme Court Chips Away at Vicarious Liability Claims
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last month in Clawson v. Hts. Chiropractic Physicians that if a physician cannot be held directly liable for malpractice, then a lawsuit seeking to hold the physician’s employer vicariously liable must be dismissed. In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court dismissed a medical liability lawsuit filed by a patient of a Montgomery County chiropractic firm. The decision reversed a ruling by the Second District Court of Appeals, which held that Cynthia Clawson could sue Heights Chiropractic Physicians despite her malpractice claim against the chiropractor who allegedly harmed her having been dismissed as untimely ...

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May 16, 2022 by matray

The May 2022 issue of Medical Liability Monitor features the following articles and more. Click here to subscribe today.

Corporate Acquisitions Accelerating Surge in Employed Physicians
New research from the Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI), a nonprofit physician advocacy organization, in conjunction with the healthcare consultancy Avalere Health, indicates almost three quarters (73.9%) of all U.S. physicians were employed by a hospital, health system or other corporate entity as of Jan. 1, 2022, up from 69% at the same point last year. And researchers noted the employed-physician trend accelerated drastically after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — with 83,000 physicians having transitioned from independent practice since March 2020. …

California Healthcare Providers, Trial Attorneys, Legislators Reach Deal to Increase MICRA Cap
Stakeholders in the decades-long battle over California’s noneconomic damages cap for medical liability jury verdicts announced they have reached a compromise between healthcare, legal and consumer advocates on legislation to modernize the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). Signed into law in 1975, MICRA established a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice awards for things like pain and suffering, which proponents argued was necessary to balance compensatory justice for injured patients with important legal and financial protections for healthcare providers. The cap has never been adjusted for inflation ...

Virtual or Hybrid Trials, Arbitration Expected to Continue Post-Pandemic
The national law firm Wilson Elser LLP expects virtual and hybrid jury trials, bench trials and arbitrations to continue as the nation and its court systems transition out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prediction came during the 42-location firm’s recent National Mock Trial Training Program, where senior partners train Wilson Elser’s next generation of trial attorneys …

New York High Court to Determine Who Gets MLMIC Demutualization Money
The New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York, heard oral arguments last month for a set of related cases questioning who is the rightful beneficiary of monies generated by the demutualization of Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Co. (MLMIC). What’s the question at hand? While the healthcare providers were listed as the policyholders on paper, their employers argue that because the medical practice paid the premium, they are, in fact, the policyholders and are entitled to the demutualization proceeds. The employed healthcare providers counter that the medical liability insurance coverage was part of their work compensation and they deserve the proceeds. …

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March 7, 2022 by matray

The just-published March 2022 issue of Medical Liability Monitor features the following articles and more. Click here to subscribe today.

Doctors, Politicians Battle Over COVID Disinformation, Standard of Care
A growing number of state medical boards have been pushing back against the minority of healthcare professionals spreading dangerous COVID-19 disinformation and prescribing unproven coronavirus treatments. They are increasingly meeting resistance from conservative lawmakers …

Battle Over California’s MICRA Cap on Noneconomic Damages Heats Up
Consumer advocacy and plaintiff attorney groups are squaring off against physicians and healthcare interests over California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). The 1975 medical liability tort law capped noneconomic damages at $250,000, created a tiered cap for attorney fees, established a one-year statute of limitations and codified periodic payments for jury awards ...

Kentucky Legislators Want to Amend Constitution for Damage Cap
Kentucky lawmakers last month introduced legislation to start the process of amending Section 54 of the commonwealth’s Constitution in order to give the General Assembly authority to limit non-economic damages for personal injury lawsuits and provide statutes of limitation …

Iowa House Advances Bill with Hard Noneconomic Damage Cap
The Labor Committee of the Iowa House of Representatives advanced legislation last month intended to combat the state’s worker shortage by reforming unemployment and tort laws. The bill is divided into two sections: one relates to unemployment insurance and the other would create a $1 million hard cap for noneconomic damages in medical liability and commercial motor vehicle claims. Gov. Kim Reynolds listed medical malpractice reform as a priority in her Condition of the State address in January …

New Report: Medical Liability Programs, Reforms Can Help States Ease Shortage of Rural Healthcare Providers
Many rural communities across the United States lack access to healthcare, but states have tools to help relieve rural care shortages and support healthcare professionals, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress. And the left-leaning public policy research and advocacy organization says medical malpractice programs and reforms can play a significant role in alleviating those shortages …

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