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The Relationship Between Tort Reform And Medical Utilization, Kevin T. Kavanagh, Lindsay Calderon, Daniel Saman
The Relationship Between Tort Reform And Medical Utilization, Kevin T. Kavanagh, Lindsay Calderon, Daniel Saman
Biological Sciences Faculty and Staff Research
NTRODUCTION: The hidden cost of defensive medicine has been cited by policymakers as a significant driving force in the increase of our nation's health-care costs. If this hypothesis is correct, one would expect that states with higher levels of tort reform will have a decrease in Medicare utilization and that medical utilization will decrease after tort reform is enacted.
METHODS: State-level reimbursement data for years 1999 to 2010 (the last year available) was obtained from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. Medical tort rankings for the 50 states were obtained from the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and correlated with state …