The Effect of Mandatory Insurer Reporting on Settlement Delay
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-7-2021
Abstract
To improve their fiscal position, Medicare and some state Medicaid programs have recently taken steps to mandate reporting of personal injury awards and thus facilitate subrogation against such awards. Participants in the tort system have argued these additional reporting requirements might delay settlement of claims, harming both plaintiffs and defendants. This article examines this problem empirically, using a rich, national data set of closed automobile bodily injury claims. Using a differences-in-differences research design that exploits the introduction of a new Medicare reporting requirement in 2011, it demonstrates that mandated reporting increased time to settlement by 19%, or an average of 58 days. Robustness checks using data from closed malpractice claims reveal a similar delay. Conservative calculations suggest such delays could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in waiting costs each year. Policymakers should be aware of and seek to avoid such costs as they assess whether and how to expand reporting of personal injury awards.
Keywords
Medicare, Medicaid, health insurace, claims settlement, health policy, personal injury reporting
Publication Title
American Laww and Economics Review
Repository Citation
Heaton, Paul, "The Effect of Mandatory Insurer Reporting on Settlement Delay" (2021). All Faculty Scholarship. 2962.
https://doi.org/10.1093/aler/ahaa010