WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A small group of mistake-prone doctors is responsible for the belief the United States has a medical-malpractice lawsuit crisis, a watchdog report says.
Barely 5.9 percent of doctors were responsible for 57.8 percent of U.S. malpractice payments from 1991 to 2005, with each of these doctors making at least two payments, says "The Great Medical Malpractice Hoax," released by Ralph Nader's Public Citizen group.
The vast majority of doctors -- 82 percent -- have not had a medical malpractice payment in the period beginning in 1990, the report says.
Business and medical lobbying interests are misleading the public when they claim a malpractice crisis in their lobbying to limit how much money injured patients may seek in the courts, the report says.
American Medical Association board Chairman Cecil Wilson said the Nader group "based its conclusions on an inherently flawed database, the National Practitioner Data Bank," The Insurance Journal reported.
The databank, created by Congress, tracks doctors' malpractice payments and disciplinary actions taken against them by state medical boards or hospitals.
Wilson said the Government Accountability Office has raised concerns about the databank's integrity.
The GAO had no immediate comment.
