In most settlements of medical negligence cases, the defendant and her/his insurance company want confidentiality. The settlement agreement specifies that the details of the settlement, including the names of the parties and the settlement amount, cannot be disclosed to anyone other than family members or financial advisors.
Defendant health care providers want confidentiality because they don’t want the claimant to be able to publicly disclose that the provider has paid a substantial amount to settle a malpractice case. The insurance carriers like confidentiality because it doesn’t allow other plaintiff’s attorneys to know how much was paid for a particular injury.
In some cases, plaintiffs also like confidentiality because it allows them to fend off nosy people who want to know “how much did you get?” It is always easier to say “I can’t tell you, because it is confidential.” Regardless of confidentiality, however, the insurance companies are required to report settlement both to the state agency that licenses doctors (if the settlement is for more than $20,000) and to the federal practitioner’s data bank (for any amount paid in settlement).
Most plaintiff attorneys do not like confidentiality. It means you can’t discuss the settlement with other attorneys and, if it is a large settlement, you can’t publish the results in legal publications. Most malpractice attorneys rely a great deal on referrals from other attorneys, and you want those attorneys to know about the complex or larger cases you are handling. It also allows a defendant, even in egregious cases of negligence, to hide the settlement from public scrutiny.
In some cases, the provider and insurance company will allow a “confidential” report of the settlement to be published, with the identities of the parties and the defense attorneys not reported. Those reports can include a detailed description of the medical and legal issues in the case, as well as the amount of the settlement.
There have been legislative attempts to eliminate confidentiality, on the basis of the public’s need to know about medical claims and their settlements, but so far they have not been successful. Newspapers occasionally run stories about cases that were “hidden” from the public through confidentiality provisions, but that has so far not led to legislation to eliminate the practice.
