Medical malpractice claims in the U.S. likely will decrease by 1% next year, after "years of soaring liability" for physicians and hospitals, according to a study scheduled for release on Tuesday by Aon, an Illinois-based insurance brokerage firm, the Wall Street Journal reports. However, the study found that the average size of malpractice claims likely will increase by 7.5%. For the study, which was co-sponsored by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, Aon examined about 60 health care organizations, or 10% of the $10 billion hospital liability market and 15% of the alternative insurance market. According to the Journal, the estimated decrease in malpractice claims is "encouraging for medical professionals, who have been waging a high-profile battle against the high cost of malpractice insurance for years," and "promising for patients, since it could suggest that hospitals are improving the quality of certain high-risk practice area," such as emergency department care and obstetrics. The expected decrease also will allow hospitals to "take that money they would have spent on claims and spend it on investments in quality care," Greg Larcher, an assistant director and actuary at Aon, said. He added that the four states expected to lead the expected decrease -- California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas -- have enacted legislative reforms to limit malpractice claims, such as caps on damages, restrictions on expert witnesses and rules about where patients can file claims. States that have not enacted such reforms -- such as Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio -- likely will continue to experience increases in malpractice claims, Larcher said (Gullapalli, Wall Street Journal, 10/18).

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