Pang Michael, Hasan Sayyida S, Woo Joshua J, Olsen Reena J, Ramkumar Prem N
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Rush University Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Am J Sports Med. 2025 Feb;53(2):261-268. doi: 10.1177/03635465241306742. Epub 2025 Jan 9.
Orthopaedic surgeons play a critical role in ensuring the health and safety of professional athletes. Despite the privilege of treating elite athletes, there exists great financial exposure to individual physicians in the event of a malpractice lawsuit.
HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and model malpractice liability exposure of the sports medicine surgeon caring for athletes in the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL) with respect to player position and additional supplemental malpractice insurance needs. It was hypothesized that routine liability coverage cannot adequately address the demands of caring for elite athletes in professional sports leagues.
Economic and Decision Analysis; Level of evidence, 3.
In total, 2447 NFL, 992 MLB, and 980 NHL player contracts from the 2022-2023 season were aggregated from a publicly available online database. Position, team, total contract value, and mean yearly salary were noted. Risk ratios were calculated with respect to 1 million US dollars (USD) and 3 million USD of annual occurrence-based malpractice liability awards and used to generate a "covered-to-treat" analysis. Supplemental malpractice liability insurance was quantified.
Assuming 1 million and 3 million USD occurrence-based awards covered by malpractice liability insurance, team physicians can fully treat 17.3% and 50.0% of NFL players, 43.2% and 59.7% of MLB players, and 13.6% and 41.0% of NHL players, without incurring additional personal financial risk, from a risk-based medicolegal model. Liability policies of 52.6 million, 108.1 million, and 64.1 million USD are required to treat 95% of NFL, MLB, and NHL players, respectively. Positions carrying the greatest risk ratios are quarterback (QB) (9.9) in the NFL, right field (15.1) in the MLB, and center (5.7) in the NHL.
Sports medicine specialists caring for elite athletes face potential personal financial risk due to insufficient medicolegal coverage. While coverage may vary among different practice settings including private, academic, or public state institutions, medical malpractice risk is crucial in partnerships between sports franchises, hospitals, players, agents, and physicians to protect sports medicine physicians and offer the highest-quality care.
骨科医生在确保职业运动员的健康和安全方面发挥着关键作用。尽管有治疗精英运动员的特权，但在发生医疗事故诉讼时，个别医生面临着巨大的经济风险。
假设/目的：本研究的目的是评估和模拟美国国家橄榄球联盟（NFL）、美国职业棒球大联盟（MLB）和国家冰球联盟（NHL）中照顾运动员的运动医学外科医生在医疗事故责任方面的风险，涉及球员位置和额外的补充医疗事故保险需求。据推测，常规责任保险无法充分满足职业体育联盟中照顾精英运动员的需求。
经济与决策分析；证据等级，3级。
从一个公开的在线数据库中汇总了2022 - 2023赛季的2447份NFL、992份MLB和980份NHL球员合同。记录了位置、球队、合同总价值和平均年薪。针对每年100万美元和300万美元基于事件的医疗事故责任裁决计算风险比率，并用于生成“承保与治疗”分析。对补充医疗事故责任保险进行了量化。
根据基于风险的法医学模型，假设医疗事故责任保险涵盖每年100万美元和300万美元的裁决，球队医生可以在不承担额外个人财务风险的情况下，分别完全治疗17.3%和50.0%的NFL球员、43.2%和59.7%的MLB球员以及13.6%和41.0%的NHL球员。分别需要5260万美元、1.081亿美元和6410万美元的责任保险政策来治疗95%的NFL、MLB和NHL球员。风险比率最高的位置分别是NFL的四分卫（QB）（9.9）、MLB的右外野手（15.1）和NHL的中锋（5.7）。
照顾精英运动员的运动医学专家由于医疗法律保险不足而面临潜在的个人财务风险。虽然不同的执业环境（包括私立、学术或公立机构）的保险范围可能有所不同，但医疗事故风险在体育特许经营权、医院、球员、经纪人及医生之间的合作关系中至关重要，以保护运动医学医生并提供最高质量的医疗服务。
