(The Center Square) – A new study has found that Illinois is home to the highest medical malpractice payments in the country.
Using data from the National Practitioner Data Bank, researchers from Noll-Law.com found that the average payment in Illinois is $746,186. Massachusetts was second at $690,405. No. 4 Minnesota is the only other Midwestern state in the top ten. Wisconsin is ranked No. 12.
Illinois’ other neighbors came in significantly lower. Indiana ranked No. 45 with an average malpractice payment of $318,740.
Bob Larsen is a medical malpractice defense attorney for Cunningham, Meyer & Vedrine, with offices in Chicago and Warrenville. He is also a member of the Illinois Defense Counsel. Larsen said the numbers he’s seen the last five years are astronomical.
“I’ve seen more verdicts in excess of $25 million in individual malpractice cases than I saw the entire rest of my career,” Larsen told The Center Square.
Larsen said he has about 30 years of experience with malpractice cases. He said doctors and hospitals face bankruptcy because of these verdicts.
“Doctors, especially individual doctors, are almost forced to settle a case whether they think the case has merit or not, because if they lose, nobody can afford insurance up to $25 million,” Larsen said.
Larsen said attorneys used to be embarrassed to ask for that amount of money.
According to Larsen, everyone pays the price for big malpractice payments.
“Seven million dollars means they’re not hiring new nurses. It means they’re not buying the next MRI machine or they’re not opening up the next wing of their hospital and doing the things that they do to provide care,” Larsen said.
Larsen said the Illinois Supreme Court has blocked reform efforts by lawmakers.
“There’s always some technicality they find,” Larsen said.
He added that Illinois has a requirement that a doctor certify a case as having merit.
“It used to be somewhat more difficult to get that. Now it’s sort of a cottage industry. Anybody can find a 262 report. Several times, the Illinois legislature passed rules saying, ‘well, somebody at least has to at least say who they are and identify that person,’ and every time they’ve done that, the Illinois Supreme Court has struck it down. They’ve struck down caps and other things, so that those protections that might help doctors in these situations have just gone away,” Larsen said.
A study commissioned by Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse Illinois revealed that each person in the Chicago metropolitan region pays an annual “tort tax” of $2,321.
CALA Illinois Executive Director Phil Melin said the big malpractice payouts filter through the economy and land at the feet of consumers.
“Here’s what happens: the insurance companies look at the big verdicts and they say, ‘It’s more risky for us, more expensive for us to insure physicians and medical groups in Illinois because the court system gives out big verdicts. What do they do? They have to increase their insurance rates,” Melin said. “The doctors and the medical groups have to buy insurance, and so it becomes more expensive. Their premiums go higher … and so they turn around and try to pass on the costs of their higher insurance rates to the consumers. That, then manifests onto the consumers, and when we buy our health insurance, it’s more expensive.”
