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Rising medical malpractice premiums in Texas aren't the result of more lawsuits or bigger jury verdicts against doctors, as the insurance industry has long contended, according to a study by professors at the University of Texas and two other universities. The study, which will be released today, examined 15 years of data from the Texas Department of Insurance and found that, adjusted for inflation, population and other factors, claim rates and jury verdicts have been stable since 1988. "People say the problem is blockbuster verdicts, but our study shows that verdicts of more than $1 million are consistently about 5 percent of the claims. . . . Super big verdicts aren't becoming more common," said David Hyman, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Illinois and a study co-author. The others are UT finance professor Bernard Black, UT law professor Charles Silver and Columbia Law School professor William Sage. The study comes nearly two years after the Legislature -- driven by warnings that skyrocketing insurance premiums were forcing doctors to leave the state or leave medicine -- agreed to a statewide vote on Proposition 12, which capped noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering at $250,000 in medical malpractice lawsuits. President Bush is now pushing for a national cap for "pain and suffering" awards in medical malpractice cases.
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