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Invited Commentary
July 2015

Should Malpractice Settlements Be Secret?

Author Affiliations
  • 1Stanford Law School, Stanford, California
  • 2Department of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
  • 3Todd & Weld LLP, Boston, Massachusetts
JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(7):1135-1137. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.1038

In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Sage et al1 report a novel study of nondisclosure provisions among Texas malpractice settlement agreements. Nearly all the settlements contained at least one type of disclosure restriction, and approximately 40% barred claimants from discussing the facts surrounding their injury. Nearly a quarter prohibited claimants from alerting a professional regulatory body to what happened.

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