Tort Reform Necessary To Cutting Health Care Costs

A trade group representing medical professional liability insurance companies pointed to a new study indicating that physicians practicing defense medicine cost the U.S. health system $45 billion annually. The Physician Insurers Association of America said the study in the September 2010 issue of Health Affairs also found that total costs related to medical liability account for more than $55 billion, and the practice of defense medicine constituted 80 percent of that cost.