Medical malpractice is a term that often makes health care professionals cringe because of the magnitude of what can come of it. In the United States, our system that deals with Medical Malpractice is imperfect and there are many uncertainties when it comes to the filing of claims and the amount of time in which the medical negligence took place. Compensation for Medical Malpractice is also a hard element to estimate because of the wide variety of claims and outcomes associated with different types of negligence. Medical Malpractice treats affect the patient and the doctor because the relationship becomes tense and not to mention the costs affiliated with insurance premiums and defensive medicine.

Discussion: Medical malpractice is a claim that occurs when there is negligence to a patient that occurs in a hospital, or doctor’s office, or by a health care professional (Bal B, 2009). The quality of ethical standards and skill are instilled in a competent physician and it’s their responsibility to exercise those standards. In medical malpractice, there are a few different elements that must be confirmed and proven for the injured patient to suggest the physician acted negligently. The legal elements that must be confirmed are the duty of care owed to the patient, the breach of duty, the results of the cause of a breach, and damages that resulted (Bal B, 2009). Stakeholders and physicians in health care are certain that liability reform can be addressed in two specific ways for health care costs. The health care costs are a result of a rise in malpractice insurance premiums and defensive medicine clinicians using intentional overuse to decrease liability risk (Mello et al., 2010). Health care costs are being driven up into the billions as a result of higher insurance premiums and the requirement for additional testing and procedures prescribed by physicians (Weissert and Weissert, 2019).

Medical liability reform should be addressed at a state level rather than a federal one because of how the Medicaid Expansion is managed and the state the physician is licensed. The Medical liability reform would like to refocus how spending is distributed and lay down some rules. These new approaches include damage caps, pre-trial screening panels, attorney’s fees max, joint, and several-liability reform, collateral source rule reform, periodic payments, and statutes of limitation on claims or repose (Kachalia and Mello, 2011). As the uncertainty in the market fluctuates, have a cap or limit to spending can help save money at both a state and federal level. The medical liability reform at a state level can essentially resolve and improve the broken liability system and guarantee patients will not lose their access to a range of health care services (AMA, n.d.).

Conclusion: Laws vary from state to state, so having medical liability laws specific to each state would be ideal. Apart from caps and limits to ensure costs and premiums remain low, there are other factors states can inflict independently that address the provisions implemented whether federal or state. Medical malpractice should ultimately be addressed and assessed at a level that is much broader and affects the hospitals in the community directly.