In the final segment of our interview with Dr. Richard Anderson, Chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, we ask him if and how the medical liability landscape has changed since he published the article Billions for Defense: The Pervasive Nature of Defensive Medicine in 1999. Dr. Anderson’s response is that the practice of defensive […]

In part six of our interview with Dr. Richard Anderson, Chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, we discuss whether further tort reform is necessary, given that claims frequency is at an all-time low and the medical malpractice insurance industry is experiencing its longest soft market in history. Though this is true, with claims down […]

In segment five of our interview with Dr. Richard Anderson, Chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, we ask him about the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), which was enacted in California in 1975. MICRA was instituted to help lower medical malpractice insurance premiums, which had become prohibitively expensive for many physicians in California […]

Defensive medicine is notoriously hard to quantify, with estimates of the cost to the U.S. healthcare system ranging anywhere between $46 billion and $850 billion. Yet, it is a pervasive part of the medical system. To complement the Healthcare Matters interview series, The State of Defensive Medicine, featuring Richard E. Anderson, MD, FACP, Chairman and […]

Part four of our interview series with Dr. Richard Anderson, Chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, addresses alternatives to the current medical malpractice system, including mediation and arbitration and specialized health courts. Dr. Anderson points out that “More than 80 percent of all medical malpractice claims close with no indemnity payment… anything that would […]

Richard Anderson, Chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, we discuss the recent study published in the BMJ, titled Physician spending and subsequent risk of malpractice claims: observational study. According to this study, researchers found that physicians who used more resources had a reduced risk of malpractice claims. The study was based on data from […]

In the second part of our interview series with Dr. Richard Anderson, CEO and Chairman of The Doctor’s Company, we address the question of patient requests for unnecessary or excessive medical testing. While it is important to ensure that every patient receives appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic care, Dr. Anderson points out the potential dangers of […]

Richard E. Anderson, MD, FACP, the Chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, recently appeared on Healthcare Matters to discuss his views on the problem of defensive medicine. In the first of a series of videos, Dr. Anderson defines defensive medicine as “A test, procedure, or therapy that is ordered by a physician primarily to […]

A recent study published in the BMJ titled: Physician spending and subsequent risk of malpractice claims: observational study gives us some much needed insight into the following question: Is a higher use of resources by physicians associated with a reduced risk of malpractice claims? The researchers used data for almost every admission to acute care […]