Hospital Liability Claims at 8 Year Low
"Hospitals of all sizes that that cover their primary professional liability risks through alternative risk-financing measures are keeping their claim frequency and severity rates to eight-year lows, according to a new study. The frequency of claims for the 1,000 facilities—part of 80 health care organizations—that participated in the study did not increase for the third consecutive year, reports the '2007 Hospital Professional Liability and Physician Liability Benchmark Analysis.' The report is published by Chicago-based Aon Corp. in conjunction with the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. In addition, the severity of losses over the past year increased 3%, the lowest increase over the eight years that Aon and ASHRM have produced the report. Claim severity has fallen sharply over the past several years, from 8% in the 2004 study, to 6.4% in 2005, to 6% in 2006, according to the latest report. Based on those figures, Aon is advising hospital risk managers to anticipate a 3% increase in liability costs in 2008 before factoring in organic growth. That advisory rate also is the lowest over the history of the report."
Dave Lenckus, Business Insurance 10/2/07
http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=11231
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