Healthcare News of Note: 3 factors increase the likelihood that a physician has been sued

• Some46.8% of physicians over the age of 54 report they have been sued compared to 9.5% of physicians under the age of 40.
• The revenue cycle management segment accounted for the largest revenue share in the global healthcare finance solutions market in 2022.
• Greater representation of Black primary care physicians (PCPs) in the PCP workforce is associated with improved survival-related outcomes for Black individuals.

Over the past few weeks, I have found these industry news stories that should be of interest to healthcare finance professionals.   

1. Length of practice, medical specialty and gender help determine how likely U.S. physicians are to have been sued

“It is virtually a matter of time before a physician is sued,” with a physician’s age and length of practice increasing the risk of a lawsuit, according to a May 10 American Medical Association (AMA) news release announcing the results of an analysis on liability claim frequency. 

Other “prominent factors in the likelihood of being sued during a career in medicine” include a physician’s medical specialty and gender.

Analysis results

The results of the “Medical Liability Claim Frequency Among U.S. Physicians” analysis* include:

• “Looking at physicians as a whole, relatively few physicians are sued in a one-year period,” with around 2.4% in both 2016 and 2018, 2.1% in 2020 and 1.8% in 2022.
• “The longer physicians are in practice, the higher is their exposure to risk,” with 46.8% of physicians over the age of 54 reporting they had been sued compared to 9.5% of physicians under the age of 40.
• About 62% of OB-GYNs and 59.3% of general surgeons had been sued in their careers to date, compared to 7% of allergists/immunologists and 8% of hematologists/oncologists, the specialties that were at lowest risk.
• 23.8% of female physicians had been sued compared to 36.8% of male physicians. 

“Even the most highly qualified and competent physicians in the U.S. may face a medical liability claim in their careers, however, getting sued is not indicative of medical errors,” said AMA President Jack Resneck Jr., MD, in the release. “… When physicians are sued, two-thirds of civil liability claims are dropped, dismissed, or withdrawn without a finding of fault.”

*The AMA’s Benchmark Surveys are nationally representative surveys of physicians, with data included for 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022. In each year, 3,500 physicians completed the survey for a total of 14,000 observations.

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2.  The global healthcare finance solutions market is expected to register a rapid-revenue CAGR of 8.2%

The global healthcare finance solutions market was valued at $23.91 billion in 2022 “and is expected to register a rapid revenue [compound annual growth rate (CAGR)] of 8.2% during the forecast period [from 2019 to 2032],” according to a May 8 news release by Reports and Data.

Major factors driving this revenue growth, according to the release, include:

• Rising demand for healthcare services globally
• An increasing need for constant upgrades and modifications in different healthcare processes for the purpose of improving performance at healthcare facilities

Additional insight

Other report insights include:

• The revenue cycle management segment accounted for the largest revenue share in the global healthcare finance solutions market in 2022.
• The cloud-based segment registered the fastest revenue growth rate in the market during the forecast period.
• The North America market accounted for the largest revenue share in the global healthcare market in 2022.

3. Why Black PCP representation is so critical to healthcare DEI efforts

The survival rates of Black patients improve when there are more Black primary care physicians (PCPs) in the workforce, according to results of a study published by JAMA Network Open on April 14.

Of the 1,618 U.S. counties studied, “Black PCPs operated in less than half of all counties” during the assessment periods of 2009, 2014 and 2019. However, the study results indicated “a 31-day higher age-standardized life expectancy among Black individuals” with, on average, every 10% increase in Black PCP representation at the county level.

“Higher Black PCP representation levels were also associated with lower all-cause mortality rates among Black individuals and with reduced mortality rate disparities between Black and White individuals,” wrote the study authors.

Strategies to expand DEI in healthcare

The authors wrote, “Efforts to expand structural diversity within the health workforce, meaning to improve the numeric or proportional racial and ethnic mix of practicing PCPs, can be complemented by other strategies,” including:

• Strengthening cultural competency curricula and implementing educational approaches that elevate the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion
• Providing opportunities for students and trainees to interact with peers from different racial and ethnic backgrounds than their own

HFMA bonus content

• Listen to the recent Voices in Healthcare Finance podcast episode, “Crawfish, helping hands and ‘Hard Truths’ about healthcare: Joe Fifer looks back on 40 years with HFMA,” with host Erika Grotto.
• Read the article “CMS issues RFI to gather best practices for identifying and supporting safety net hospitals,” by Nick Hut, senior editor.
• Read original content from the May issue of hfm, including the cover story “How the CEO of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. aims to upend the PBM model,” by Paul Barr, MS, MBA, senior editor; and the feature “5 issues that are keeping healthcare compliance professionals up at night,” by Nick Hut, senior editor.