Med Mal: Putting insurers in charge!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21871048

J Law Med Ethics. 2011 Sep;39(3):539-42. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2011.00620.x.
Improve medical malpractice law by letting health care insurers take charge.
Reinker KS, Rosenberg D.
Source
Lawyer in Washington, D.C. Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, specializes in analysis and reform of tort law and the civil liability system for adjudicating mass injury cases.

Abstract
This essay discusses unlimited insurance subrogation (UIS) as a means of improving the deterrence and compensation results of medical malpractice law. Under UIS, health care insureds could assign their entire potential medical malpractice claims to their first-party commercial and government insurers. UIS should improve deterrence by establishing first-party insurers as plaintiffs to confront liability insurers on the defense side, leading to more effective prosecution of meritorious claims and reducing meritless and unnecessary litigation. UIS should improve compensation outcomes by converting litigation cost- and risk- laden "tort insurance" into cheaper and enhanced first-party insurance. UIS also promises dynamic benefits through further reforms by contract between the first-party and liability insurers that would take charge of system. No UIS-related costs are apparent that would outweigh these benefits.

© 2011 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.