Originally posted by Cataholic


It isn't lawsuits that drive up malpractice rates. It is insurance companies that drive up malpractice rates. Malpractice cases are the hardest to win and the most expensive to try. The insurance companies do not settle. Next to never. So, if they don't settle, and never pay out..then, why is it that these malpractice cases are driving up rates? Seems like rates should be lower..since nothing gets paid out. It is hoopla. Hype.
Where do the judgements against surgeons come from?

From the insurance companies that cover them.

They HAVE TO RAISE rates in order to take on a court case and the lawyers who sue.


That "INSURANCE COST" is also passed along in the cost of implants, screws, pacemakers and all the Genuine Replacement Parts that companies like Baxter, Storz and J&J make.

The have to carry insurance for their products as well.

The insurance companies would rather fight than settle because that would open the flood gates to every sue/settlement happy person in the country.

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A stainless steel screw, one inch long, to put a bone back together costs about 70 dollars...

Just because it has a different head on it, you need a special bit and driver to place it and to cover all the lawsuits that have ever and will be filed against the manufacturer is the reason that a simple screw costs so much....