CHICAGO, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- While the severity of malpractice claims continues to rise -- growing at a rate of 7.5 percent annually -- the frequency of malpractice claims has decreased by one percent over the past year, according to the 2005 Hospital Professional Liability and Physician Liability Benchmark Analysis released today by Aon . This is the first time in the history of the study the frequency trend decreased in claims for both hospitals and physicians.
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Greg Larcher, assistant director and actuary of Aon Risk Consultants and author of the analysis explained: “We believe that legislative reforms in several states over the last few years are contributing to the reduction in claims. In addition, the medical malpractice availability and affordability crisis of the last several years has resulted in a rapidly growing alternative market. Healthcare systems now have a greater financial incentive to reduce their cost of risk.”
Added Greg Morris, chief operating officer of Aon Healthcare: “Actions taken by healthcare systems to improve quality of care and a heightened awareness of how quality care and patient safety tie directly to the cost of risk have also played a role in the decline.”
The comprehensive study examines more than 200,000 hospital bed equivalents and represents approximately 10 percent of the hospital professional liability market, and 15 percent of the alternative segment of the market, making it the largest analysis of its kind.
In total, the analysis database contains 53,000 non-zero claims, representing $4.5 billion of incurred losses, and includes historical claims information for 10 accident years (1995 to 2004). The study also includes breakouts of claim costs and frequency trends by facility type, including university, specialty, religious, publicly traded and community.
The 2005 Hospital Professional Liability and Physician Liability Benchmark Analysis is co-sponsored by the American Society of Healthcare Risk Managers (ASHRM). To purchase a copy, please dial +1.800.242.2626 and request item #178700.
About Aon
Aon Corporation ( http://www.aon.com ) is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 47,000 employees working in Aon’s 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions.
For more information, contact: Amy Littleton, KemperLesnik Communications, +1.312.755.3572, Amy.Littleton@kemperlesnik.com or Thaddeus Woosley, Aon Corporation, +1.312.381.2446, Thaddeus_Woosley@aon.com
This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of regulatory investigations brought by state attorneys general and state insurance regulators related to our compensation arrangements with underwriters and related issues, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, and ERISA class actions, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company’s financial results, is contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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CONTACT: Amy Littleton of KemperLesnik Communications, +1-312-755-3572,Amy.Littleton@kemperlesnik.com ; or Thaddeus Woosley of Aon Corporation,+1-312-381-2446, Thaddeus_Woosley@aon.com
Web site: http://www.aon.com/
