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Full-Text Articles in Law
Defensive Medicine And Obstetric Practices, Michael D. Frakes
Defensive Medicine And Obstetric Practices, Michael D. Frakes
Faculty Scholarship
Using data on physician behavior from the 1979–2005 National Hospital Discharge Surveys (NHDS), I estimate the relationship between malpractice pressure, as identified by the adoption of non-economic damage caps and related tort reforms, and certain decisions faced by obstetricians during the delivery of a child. The NHDS data, supplemented with restricted geographic identifiers, provides inpatient discharge records from a broad enough span of states and covering a long enough period of time to allow for a defensive medicine analysis that draws on an extensive set of variations in relevant tort laws. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, I find no evidence …
Hidden Costs? Malpractice Allegations And Defensive Medicine Among Cardiac Surgeons, Barak D. Richman, Marco Huesch
Hidden Costs? Malpractice Allegations And Defensive Medicine Among Cardiac Surgeons, Barak D. Richman, Marco Huesch
Faculty Scholarship
This article evaluates the impact of private allegations of malpractice against cardiac surgeons on their patients’ outcomes and characteristics. While tort law may impact observable physician costs, malpractice allegations also impose hidden costs that could also affect physician behavior. We employ a large and multi-year panel dataset and patient-level analysis to ascertain whether malpractice allegations influence a surgeon’s practicing behavior. Using a generalized difference-in-difference model that controls for unobserved patient heterogeneity, clustering of patients within surgeon offices, contemporaneous expected risk, and other patient variables, we measure whether an allegation of malpractices affects a physician’s service intensity and use of healthcare …