Description

The 2021 Aon/ASHRM Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmark is in its 22nd year of publication. This year’s report is based on the data from 109 participating health care systems which collectively account for 32% of the hospital exposures in the country.

Our report strives to provide healthcare systems with a data-based tool for better estimating and understanding their self-insured medical malpractice costs relative to those for their peers.

Through measurement, analysis, and comparison of the claim and exposure data, risk managers can develop proactive strategies to reduce medical professional liability (MPL) related claim frequency and/or severity and ultimately improve patient and financial outcomes.
 
The current report provides the findings of Aon’s actuarial analyses as well as insights on the following topics:

• Trends in countrywide hospital professional liability (HPL), physician professional liability (PPL), and general liability (GL) benchmark frequency, severity and loss rates that are based on the underlying database of 109 systems.
• Frequency, severity and loss rate forecasts for 2022.
• The impact of COVID-19 on medical malpractice claims in 2020.
• An analysis of current medical malpractice insurance retentions, insured limits, and premium rates.
• An analysis of the drivers behind the increases in premium rates and retentions in the current insurance markets, contributed by Sompo International. 
• Usage of alternate risk transfer mechanisms, such as captives and claim cost comparisons of captive and non-captive risks.
• An analysis of MPL claims costs and CMS Star ratings by Beazley.
• Healthcare risk management department characteristics, including number of Certified Professionals in Health Care Risk Management (CPHRMS) and other risk management professionals, batch claims, and days cash on hand.
• Benchmark statistics for claim lags, cause of loss, hospital service lines, demographics, and types of claim disposition.
• Benchmark metrics for 22 individual states that have sufficient data volume and credibility, including breakouts by territory for Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.