Medical liability claims hover at 3,000 mark for third straight year in Ohio

04/17/2012

Nearly 3,000 medical professional liability claims were completed in 2010 in the Buckeye State, a new report confirms.<br/><br/>According to the Ohio Department of Insurance&#39;s sixth annual Ohio Medical Professional Liability Closed Claims Report, 2,988 liability claims were closed in 2010, the latest year for which data of this type are available. Authorized insurers reported most of these claims, totaling just under 1,640. The remainder were filed by those who were injured, surplus lines insurers and risk retention groups.<br/><br/>The report also detailed the trend of professional liability claims in the report&#39;s six-year history. Since 2005, annual claims have generally become fewer in number, dropping from approximately 5,000 in 2005 to around 3,000 each year since 2008.<br/><br/>As for the expenses from closed claims, they totaled nearly $70 million, most of which were related to court costs. This averages out to around $29,400 per claim, ODI notes.<br/><br/>According to the ODI, Ohio law stipulates that all practices that provide medical professional liability insurance report closed claim data to the department on an annual basis.