Medical professional liability in the United States, as measured by total premiums paid by physicians and healthcare facilities,
costs approximately $30 billion a year in direct expenses, less than 2% of the entire annual healthcare expenditures. Only
a fraction of those dollars reach patients who are negligently injured. Nonetheless, the tort system has far-reaching effects
that create substantial indirect costs. Medical malpractice litigation is pervasive and physicians practice defensively to
avoid being named in a suit. Those extra expenditures provide little value to patients. Despite an elaborate existing tort
system, patient safety remains a vexing problem. Many injured patients are denied access to timely, reasonable remedies. We
propose a no-fault system supplemented by a variation of the traditional tort system whereby physicians are incentivized to
follow evidence-based guidelines. The proposed system would guarantee a substantial decrease in, but not elimination of, litigation.
The system would lower professional liability premiums. Injured patients would ordinarily be compensated with no-fault disability
and life insurance proceeds. To the extent individual physicians pose a recurrent danger, their care would be reviewed on
an administrative level. Savings would be invested in health information technology and purchase of insurance coverage for
the uninsured. We propose a financial model based on publicly accessible sources.
Each author certifies that he has or may receive payments or benefits from a commercial entity related to this work. JJS is
the named inventor of two filed patent applications on the system disclosed in this article. MS has rights related to revenue
associated with potential licensing of those patent applications.