Cost to the Government for Providing Medical Malpractice Coverage to Community and Migrant Health Centers

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Currently, the Federal Government provides unlimited medical malpractice liability insurance coverage to Community and Migrant Health Centers (C/MHC). We analyzed the cost for providing this unlimited coverage for a 3-year period and estimate that significant savings would result (about $30.6 million over 3 years) if the Federal Government established a $1 million per claim limit on such coverage. We recommended that the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) consider seeking a legislative change to limit malpractice settlements or judgements involving C/MHCs to $1 million. The HRSA concurred with our recommendation and agreed to develop a legislative proposal to the Federal Tort Claims Act to include this limitation.