Apologies and Medical Error: Do Apology Laws Create More Medical Malpractice Lawsuits?

[3 MIN READ]

In April, a handful of media outlets reported on a Stanford Law Review article that was published in February 2019 claiming that so-called state apology laws may actually increase medical malpractice lawsuits for non-surgeons. The title of the study is “'Sorry' Is Never Enough: How State Apology Laws Fail to Reduce Medical Malpractice Liability Risk."   

While an initial version of this article was released two years ago, this revision of the article better explains the authors’ methodology and the results of the study make sense. In states with apology laws, non-surgeon physicians saw higher rates of medical malpractice lawsuits and dollars paid out. The authors did not see a similar effect with surgeons. Given the media attention this article received, it’s important to clarify what the study revealed.

Source: Hubspot

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