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The resolution process and the timing of settlement of medical malpractice claims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2019

Samantha Bielen ,
Peter Grajzl  and
Wim Marneffe
Samantha Bielen
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business Economics, Hasselt University, 3500Hasselt, Belgium
Peter Grajzl*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, The Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics, Washington and Lee University, 204 West Washington St., Lexington, VA24450, USA CESifo, Munich, Germany
Wim Marneffe
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business Economics, Hasselt University, 3500Hasselt, Belgium
*
*Correspondence to. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

We draw on uniquely detailed micro-level data from a Belgian professional medical liability insurer to examine how different procedural and legal events that take place during the unfolding of a medical malpractice claim influence the timing of its settlement. Utilizing the competing risks regression framework, we find that settlement hazard is all else equal statistically significantly positively associated with the completion of those procedural and legal events that most effectively reveal factual information about the underlying medical malpractice case. Consistent with theory, settlement hazard is either unassociated or even negatively associated with the completion of other procedural and legal events. Our analysis, therefore, provides policy insights into which aspects of the resolution process could be emphasized, and which de-emphasized, in order to reduce the often excessive duration of medical malpractice claims and its adverse effects on the healthcare system.

Keywords

Informationmedical malpracticeresolution delaysprocedural and legal eventssettlementJEL classificationsI18I11K41
Type
Articles
Information
Health Economics, Policy and Law , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 509 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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