Inside these posts: malpractice

Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.

 

Study: Malpractice liability costs $55B a year

A new study showing the cost of malpractice at more than $55 billion a year to the U.S. health care system has Illinois medical-care providers once again calling for tort reform.

A comprehensive analysis by researchers at Harvard University figures the annual overall cost of medical liability to be $55.6 billion, or 2.4 percent of total health care spending, according to an article published in the September issue of the journal Health Affairs. Get the full story »

Conservatives gunning for Illinois judge Kilbride

Justice Thomas L. Kilbride in 2007. (Photo from Illinois Supreme Court)

Judicial retention races are usually about as exciting as renewing your driver’s license.

Usually Illinois judges up for retention don’t run against anyone, and the ballot simply asks voters whether they want to keep the jurist on the bench by marking “yes” or “no.” No Illinois Supreme Court justice has ever not been retained.

But this year, negative politics have crept into one retention race with the election more than two months away. Conservative activists are targeting Thomas Kilbride, whose 10-year term on the Illinois Supreme Court is up, setting up a potentially nasty and expensive retention battle that voters have never seen before. Get the full story »

Malpractice insurer to pay $17M in dividends

By Bruce Japsen |
ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company said this afternoon it will distribute
nearly $17 million in new dividends to eligible policyholders in what
it called “continuing improvements” in the state’s medical litigation
climate as well as “positive underwriting results” from 2005 through
2008 policy years.

Just how long such payments will continue, however, is unclear, says the
doctor-owned insurer. The reason: The Illinois Supreme Court’s February
decision to strike down the state’s medical malpractice law, saying
limits on damages awarded to victims of medical negligence are
unconstitutional.

Get the full story »