Health and life insurance as an alternative to malpractice tort law

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tort law has legitimate social purposes of deterrence, punishment and compensation, but medical tort law does none of these well. Tort law could be counterproductive in medicine, encouraging costly defensive practices that harm some patients, restricting access to care in some settings and discouraging innovation.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Patients might be better served by purchasing combined health and life insurance policies and waiving their right to pursue malpractice claims. The combined policy should encourage the insurer to profit by inexpensively delaying policyholders' deaths. A health and life insurer would attempt to minimize mortal risks to policyholders from any cause, including medical mistakes and could therefore pursue systematic quality improvement efforts. If policyholders trust the insurer to seek, develop and reward genuinely effective care; identify, deter and remediate poor care; and compensate survivors through the no-fault process of paying life insurance benefits, then tort law is largely redundant and the right to sue may be waived. If expensive defensive medicine can be avoided, that savings alone could pay for fairly large life insurance policies.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>Insurers are maligned largely because of their logical response to incentives that are misaligned with the interests of patients and physicians in the United States. Patient, provider and insurer incentives could be realigned by combining health and life insurance, allowing the insurer to use its considerable information access and analytic power to improve patient care. This arrangement would address the social goals of malpractice torts, so that policyholders could rationally waive their right to sue.</p

Improving care for immigrant women before, during, and after childbirth - what can we learn from regional interventions within a national program in Sweden?

Background Migration has increased the number of immigrant women in western countries, which has led to a need to adapt sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care to a larger variety of experiences. Examples of problems are poor access/utilization of SRH services among migrants and a comparatively higher rate of mortality and morbidity in relation to pregnancy, especially among those from low- and middle-income settings. Attempts to improve SHR care must consider the complexity of both the problem and the system. A national program to improve women's health in Sweden provided opportunities to study interventions aimed at immigrant women, using a complexity theory lens. The purpose was to explore the characteristics and complexity of regional interventions aiming to improve care and health of immigrant women before, during and after childbirth, and provide knowledge on how regional healthcare actors perceive and address problems in these areas. Methods This archival research study is based on qualitative data from detailed yearly reports of all regional program interventions (n = 21 regions) performed between January 2017 and January 2019. The archival data consists of the regional actors' answers to an extensive questionnaire-like template, where the same questions were to be filled in for each reported intervention. Data analyses were performed in several steps, combining classic and directive content analysis. Results Six problem categories were addressed by 54 regional interventions, 26 directed at immigrant women and their families, 11 at healthcare staff, and 17 at the organizational system. The simple level interventions (n = 23) were more unilateral and contained information campaigns, information material and translation, education, mapping e.g., of genital mutilation, and providing staff and/or financial resources. The complicated interventions (n = 10) concerned increasing communication diversity e.g., by adding iPads and out-reach visits. The complex interventions (n = 21), e.g., health schools, integration of care, contained development, adaptions, and flexibility with regards to the immigrant women's situation, and more interaction among a diversity of actors, also from the wider welfare system. Conclusions It is important that complex problems, such as ensuring equal care and health among a diverse population, are addressed with a mix of simple, complicated, and complex interventions. To enhance intended change, we suggest that pre-requisites e.g., communication channels and knowledge on behalf of immigrant women and staff, are ensured before the launch of complex interventions. Alternatively, that simple level interventions are embedded in complex interventions

Ethical problems in radiology: medical error and disclosure

In radiological practice, as in any medical activity, errors are inevitable despite being foreseeable and preventable. The approach to managing medical error and relations with patients prompt the need for resolving the ethical dilemma arising from conflicting legitimate interests. The solution to this dilemma is particularly complex in an environment in which the tendency to sue physicians for civil liability or incriminate them for criminal liability appears to be particularly high. The disclosure of error is undeniably useful in raising patient awareness, reducing their suffering, improving the quality of care and limiting the consequences of the damage. There does not appear to be any evidence to suggest disclosure modifies the probability of litigation against the physician