MASS. MALPRACTICE CLAIMS DECLINE:

The number of medical malpractice payments made by Massachusetts doctors peaked in 2001 and has begun to gradually decline, while the average size of those payments continues to soar, according to a new government report. From 1994 to 2001 the number of annual malpractice payments made by Bay State doctors to patients grew by about 47 percent, from 225 to 332, according to the state Board of Registration in Medicine. But since that high, the number of payments has fallen to 276 in the last year. The drop appears to have done little to keep malpractice payouts down. The size of each payment soared from an average of $251,760 in 1994 to $431,061 in 2003. The total amount paid to settle malpractice claims each year in Massachusetts has also risen dramatically in the past decade, from $64.2 million paid out in 1994 to $118.9 million last year. The authors of the report highlighted the drop in the number of payments. “We hope that is the start of a trend,” said Russell Aims, spokesman for Board of Registration in Medicine. But the report warns that the drop could be a statistical blip.