Poor Patients Don’t Sue Doctors More
Some physicians believe that, as a group, low-income patients tend to sue their doctors more often than other patients. This mindset has potential negative effects on the doctor-patient relationship, including some physicians’ reluctance to treat poor patients, or treat such patients differently from other patient groups in medical care terms.
Jimenez and team…show that, in reality, low-income patients actually sue their doctors less often than other patient groups, in part because of a more limited access to legal resources and a payment system in medical malpractice claims which requires an advance on funds to litigate the case.
Full analysis on economically disadvantaged patients suing doctors by Stone Hearth News.
Exactly the opposite of what most doctors think.
This is surprising.
Not surprising at all.
Care for low income patients is often provided by government associated entities that have limited liability thanks to sovereign immunity laws.
Wonder if the study controlled for that?
I think Linda has nailed it. The poor may not sue because they cannot sue in some cases.
Economic losses are a large part of any award, and poor people generally won’t have large (or sometimes any)economic losses simply because they don’t have high-paying jobs (or any job at all). So a PI lawyer pursuing a contingency case is reluctant to dump a lot of his own money into the lawsuit.