Dive Brief:
- The frequency of medical liability lawsuits filed against doctors is falling over time but they are still common, according to a research report released this week from the American Medical Association.
- Risk of lawsuits is higher among certain specialities and increases the longer doctors practice medicine, the AMA reported.
- In a separate AMA report, medical liability insurance is also getting more expensive for some doctors, with premiums growing at consistent rates not seen in two decades. The risk of being sued “not only challenges physicians but it increases practice expenses, reinforces defensive medical practices, and drives up health care costs for patients and families,” Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, AMA president, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Lawsuits are ever-present in the healthcare field with procedures that carry life-or-death outcomes. In the U.S., where people spend more on litigation per person than any other country, total legal costs can cost billions of dollars and place additional strain on the healthcare system. In 2008, medical liability expenses cost the U.S. healthcare system over $55 billion dollars.
The AMA’s report, which is based on the organization’s physician practice benchmark survey of thousands of doctors nationwide, shows that the frequency of lawsuits filed against doctors may be declining, but the risk remains elevated.
The AMA found that the proportion of doctors who had been sued at least once in their career was 28.7% in 2024, a “notable decline” from 31.2% who said they had been sued at least once in 2022.
Some specialties had an especially heightened risk of litigation, including surgical specialties — almost half of surgeons told the AMA they had been sued at least once in their career. Obstetricians-gynecologists and general surgeons faced the highest liability risk, which tracks with other past studies.
On the flip side, endocrinologists and psychiatrists had some of the lowest litigation risk, with 8.9% and 9.2% of physicians reporting they had been sued once in their careers, respectively.
The heightened risk of litigation in higher-risk specialties comes as the cost of defending against medical malpractice suits climbs.
Medical malpractice premiums for general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and internal medicine have been increasing steadily since 2019, according to a second AMA report, which surveyed medical liability data insurers. Almost 40% of premiums for plans surveyed by the AMA went up in 2025, continuing a multi-year trend of rising premiums.
The increases point “to consistent upward trends... not seen since the early 2000s,” when premiums were rising at a 70% to 80% annual rate, according to the AMA.
The additional cost burden from malpractice insurance comes as providers are already grappling with persistent high expenses and inflation that have driven many vulnerable practices to close.
“Whether this upward trajectory will worsen in the near future remains to be seen,” the AMA said in its report. “However, if the trend continues, it could negatively impact patients’ access to care.”
