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 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:

• 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 108 systems.
• An analysis of medical malpractice insurance program features and the impact of current “hard” markets conducted by Aon.
• A proposed telemedicine claim taxonomy for healthcare providers whose adoption will enable analysis of associated medical malpractice claims as well as a discussion of related areas of risk, co-written by Aon and The Doctors Company.
• An analysis of MPL jury verdicts since 2001 that was done by TransRe.
• A cause-of-claim analysis pertaining to advanced practice providers conducted by Coverys as well as best practices it recommends for managing this category of exposure.
• Healthcare risk management department characteristics, including number of Certified Professionals in Health Care Risk Management (CPHRMS), insurance buying habits, claims handling procedures, and other risk management department characteristics.
• 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.