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'Sorry Works' -- or Does It?

By Kevin Quinley

'Love means never having to say you're sorry,' according to Eric Segal's protagonist in the 1970s hit book and movie, Love Story. That may work in love but, increasingly, it may not apply to the more adversarial realm of medical malpractice and adverse patient outcomes.

Thirty years ago I began my claim-handling career by attending a five-week adjuster 'boot camp' in Atlanta run by a national third-party claim administrator. Wizened instructors drummed into the newly minted adjusters certain precepts as part of that indoctrination program. Conventional wisdom in handling medical malpractice claims ' as in handling any kind of liability claim ' was never to admit to fault or blame, even when there was fault or blame. A corollary was to make no premature offers of financial settlement, but to undertake painstaking investigation of a claim to assure oneself that it was meritorious and worthy of a settlement offer. Another tenet of claim handling was that you should never make any payment without getting a signed 'Release of All Claims' in exchange. In other words, you never give anything away; no signature on the release means no settlement payment.

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