2021 Aon/ASHRM Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmark Analysis
Aon is pleased to release the 22nd annual edition of the Aon/ASHRM Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmark Analysis. Similar to prior years, Aon’s National Healthcare practice has supported the production of this benchmark report which serves to inform the healthcare industry on medical professional liability claim cost trends.
The report analyzes this year’s hospital professional liability (HPL) and physician professional liability (PPL) claims database that consists of nearly 104,000 non-zero claims that occurred between 2011 and 2020 and are worth $23.8 billion in incurred losses. In addition, the database also includes 17,000 non-zero general liability (GL) claims that represent $586 million in incurred losses that occurred between 2011 and 2020.
This report provides actuarial and underwriting insights on:
- Countrywide HPL, PPL, and GL benchmark claim costs— expressed in frequency and severity components— based on this year’s database of 109 systems.
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the medical professional liability (MPL) risk.
- Benchmark loss costs for systems that use alternate risk transfer mechanisms to insure their MPL risk.
- An analysis of changes in MPL retentions, insured limits and premium rates between current and prior insurance program renewals.
- Medical malpractice claim cost, overall inflation, retention, exposure and premium rate trends in the past decade that is based on an analysis conducted by Sompo.
- Overall claim cost trends and the relationship between loss costs and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) star ratings, from an analysis undertaken by Beazley.
- Healthcare risk management department characteristics, including insight on risk professionals and Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRMs) employed, batch claims, captive usage and cash on hand.
- Benchmark statistics by hospital service line, demographics, and by type of claim disposition.
- Benchmark statistics for twenty two individual states including territory breakouts for Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
About the Benchmark
This benchmark study is produced under a co-marketing agreement between Aon and The American Society for Health Care Risk Management (ASHRM). Participation in this benchmark was open to all ASHRM members.
The study is designed as a hands-on tool to provide healthcare risk managers with a better understanding of their cost of risk compared to an industry benchmark. Through measurement, analysis and comparison of the claim and exposure data, risk managers and other stakeholders are able to develop proactive strategies to reduce risk-related costs and improve claim outcomes.
We are grateful to benchmark participants for their interest in engaging with us on this survey and for making the time and effort to provide their data and responses to us.
If you would like to participate in future benchmarking studies or have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].
Purchase the 2021 Report
To purchase a copy of the 2021 Hospital and Professional Physician Liability Benchmark Analysis, visit the ASHRM Bookstore.
Access the Executive Summary of the 2021 Benchmark
To view the report Introduction, Letter to Readers and Executive Summary sections, access the Executive Summary (PDF).