Here are eight key statistics on physician malpractice, pulled from Medical Economics' "2022 Physician Report," WalletHub's "2022 Best & Worst States for Doctors" and Medscape's "2021 Physician Malpractice Report."
1. Fifty-one percent of physicians and 77 percent of surgeons have been named in a malpractice lawsuit.
2. Physician practice owners' annual malpractice insurance premium is $3,000 less than non-owners. Practice owners' median annual premium was $9,400 in 2021, while non-owners' was $9,700.
3. Median annual malpractice premiums by years in practice:
10 or less: $7,000
11-20: $10,800
21-30: $11,200
31-40: $9,200
41 or more: $7,100
4. Percent of physicians named in malpractice suits by specialty:
Plastic surgery: 83 percent
General surgery: 83 percent
Orthopedics: 81 percent
Urology: 80 percent
OB-GYN: 79 percent
Specialized surgery: 74 percent
Emergency medicine: 70 percent
Otolaryngology: 68 percent
Radiology: 64 percent
Cardiology: 58 percent
5. 2021 annual premium amounts by geographic region:
Northeast: $12,300
South: $7,500
Midwest: $10,400
West: $8,200
6. How physicians said their malpractice premiums changed from 2020 to 2021:
Increased: 22 percent
Stayed the same: 62 percent
Decreased: 3 percent
Don't know: 13 percent
7. The five states with the highest malpractice award payout per capita among physicians:
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
West Virginia
New Jersey
8. The five states with the lowest malpractice award payout per capita among physicians:
Wisconsin
Texas
Tennessee
Michigan
Mississippi