The cost of malpractice insurance to physicians has been increasing in recent years, as has the threat to physicians of being sued. This book describes and analyzes the workings of the market for physicians' liability insurance. The authors use their own data and other sources to study questions such as: Is the market for medical malpractice insurance competitive? Has the profitability of medical malpractice insurance been excessive? Why do malpractice insurers demand reinsurance? What effect has insurance regulation had on premiums? And it explores what experience rating is and how it is done.
Frank Sloan is the J. Alexander McMahon Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Economics at Duke University since 1993. He is the former Director of the Center for Health Policy, Law and Management at Duke (CHPLM) that originated in 1998. He holds faculty appointments in five departments at Duke, with Economics being his primary appointment. He did his undergraduate work at Oberlin College and received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Before joining the faculty at Duke in July 1993, he was a research economist at the Rand Corporation and served on the faculties of the University of Florida and Vanderbilt University. He was Chair of the Department of Economics at Vanderbilt from 1986-89. His current research interests include alcohol use and smoking prevention, long-term care, medical malpractice, and cost-effectiveness analyses of medical technologies. He also has a long-standing interest in hospitals, including regulation of hospitals, health care financing, and health manpower.
Frank has served on several national advisory public and private groups. He is currently the chair of the Institute of Medicine Committee investigating adjustment factors in Medicare payments. He was formally a member of the Physician Payment Review Commission. He is the author of about 300 journal articles and book chapters and has coauthored and coedited about 20 books.
Professor Sloan is the president elect for the American Society of Health Economists.
