Malpractice Payments and Adverse Actions against Dentists in Texas-A Fifteen-Year Trend Analysis

Abstract

Objective: Health practitioners are potentially subject to malpractice claims against them and previous research has indicated that legal proceedings against dentists are becoming a larger proportion of all malpractice payments against healthcare professionals in the United States. The objective of this study is to describe trends in the number of malpractice payments and adverse actions made against dentists in the state of Texas over a fifteen-year period from 2006 to 2020. Methods: Data regarding the adverse actions and malpractice payments against dentists was retrieved from the National Practice Data Bank for the years 2006-2020. The data set included adverse actions such as loss of clinical licensure, loss of clinical privileges or panel memberships, drug enforcement administration license and Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General exclusion (i.e., exclusion from federally funded health programs). We exported all data into data visualization tools which we used to study and report trends. The University of Michigan Medical School Committee on Human Studies determined our study was not regulated and exempt (HUM00116742). Results: The number of adverse actions against dentists in Texas rose from 2006 (75 actions) to 2015 (164 actions) followed by a downward trend until 2020 (70 actions). The number of malpractice payments against dentists had an inverse relationship with adverse actions between 2006 – 2014 and again 2017 – 2020. However, during 2014 – 2016 there was a concurrent increase in malpractice payments and adverse actions. Loss of clinical licensure was the most common (91.23%) adverse action, followed by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) action (3.77%), Health and human services – exclusions by the Office of the Inspector General (HHS OIG) exclusion (1.68%) with the least common being cancellation of clinical privileges/panel memberships (1.33%). Conclusion: The number of malpractice payments against dentists followed a loosely inverse relationship with adverse actions.