Pacific Research Institute, a San-Francisco-based think tank, compiled a ranking of the U.S. states based on their success in reforming their medical malpractice and tort liability policies. Kentucky came in third from the bottom, with only Rhode Island and Vermont beating it out for the least successful in improving their malpractice laws.

The study ranked the states based on eight measurements, including the states' caps on punitive and noneconomic damages, limits on attorney fees, the ratio of medical malpractice insurance losses to projected expenditures on personal health and more.

The eight measurements utilized in the study were obtained from the 2010 edition of the U.S. Tort Liability Index by Jovannes Abramyan and Lawrence J. McQuillan. Pacific Research Institute used these measurements to calculate where each state should be for each variable. The researchers then ranked the states based on these calculations. The director of health care studies at Pacific Research Institute stated that this ranking showed which states are "getting it right" and which still have extensive work to do.

The study indicates that no state does extremely well in every category. For example, Mississippi, which took the top ranking in the study, does not currently have limits on how much money attorneys can obtain from medical malpractice victims, which the study found encourages cost-increasing adventurism.

This study was conducted in order to bring light to the fact that too many states have inadequate tort and medical malpractice laws. These laws tend to favor attorneys, which in turn increases the cost of medical care through defensive medicine. Also, the number of doctors is decreasing while the price of medical devices and prescription drugs are increasing. Finally, there are countless meritless lawsuits that are crowding the courts' dockets. All of these factors combined results in suffering for patients who are less able to access appropriate medical care.

Source: Health Care News "Report Ranks States on Need for Medical Malpractice Reform" 8/4/10