Medical malpractice claim severity and frequency growing, according to new study

Medical malpractice claim severity for hospitals and employed physicians nationwide will have grown by a projected 2.5% at year’s end, and claim frequency will have grown by 1%, according to a joint study by Aon Risk Solutions and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. Meanwhile, a steady increase of physicians employed by hospitals, as well as new state laws that could significantly affect medical malpractice insurance costs, topped the list of health care providers’ risk concerns identified in the 2012 Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmarking Analysis, released Monday at ASHRM’s annual conference in National Harbor, Md.