RAND Law, Business, and Regulation
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The most comprehensive analysis of the risk of malpractice claims by physician specialty in more than two decades finds that U.S. physicians have a greater than 75% career-long risk of facing litigation. In some specialties, doctors can be virtually certain of a lawsuit over the course of their careers. Read More »
Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a set of controversial rules on whistleblower awards and protections, which RAND recently convened a symposium to discuss. Read More »
The residential insurance market along the U.S. Gulf Coast has not functioned well since the devastating 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. Policymakers, deeply divided about how to improve the system, have been unable to build consensus for reform. Read More »
Asbestos bankruptcy trusts—created to compensate people injured by the mineral—may be influencing tort cases. The current way that the trusts and the tort cases are linked together may result in payments that are not consistent with the basic principles of the tort liability system. Read More »
In California's workers compensation system, the permanently disabled have historically displayed poor rates of return to work and high levels of lost earnings. Several large changes to the CA workers comp system over the last ten years may not have had the intended effect. Read More »
Recent Publications
The first evaluation of the California Injury and Illness Prevention Program found that it reduces workplace injuries, but only at businesses that had been cited for not addressing the regulation's more-specific safety mandates. Having inspectors conduct more in-depth assessments and linking the violations and injuries to the program would have more impact.
Controlling health care costs while improving health is the primary challenge facing U.S. health policymakers. The role of innovation in addressing this challenge is controversial, with many seeing innovation as a critical source of rising costs, and others seeing it as crucial to achieving increased quality of care.
Since 2004, significant changes have been made to the California workers' compensation (WC) system. The implementation of these changes have had an impact on the medical care provided to injured workers. Additional changes might increase the quality and efficiency of care delivered under the WC system.
The kerfuffle over Dodd-Frank conceals broad agreement that corporate fraud and misconduct are bad and that internal compliance mechanisms are intended to protect companies as well the community at large from bad behavior, write Michael Greenberg and Donna Boehme.
A combination of high deductible health plans (HDHPs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) holds promise for expanding health insurance for small firms. This report examines HSA take-up and shopping behavior from a 2008 survey of female small business owners.
A proposal for the federal government to support state-run catastrophe-insurance programs would increase the number of people buying earthquake coverage in California and modestly lower both uninsured losses and government assistance following a major quake.
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