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In Indiana, a patient who suffers harm due to negligent care from a healthcare provider can file a medical malpractice claim against that medical provider. The Indiana medical malpractice compensation available through such a claim can cover both the financial and personal costs they’ve caused due to their medical negligence.
This can include money to pay for additional medical expenses, offset wages they’ve lost, and compensate them for the pain and suffering they’ve endured. If you believe you’ve been harmed due to the actions of negligent medical professionals, contact the Law Office of Kelley J. Johnson to speak to an experienced medical malpractice team member about your claim.
Overview of Indiana Medical Malpractice Laws
In Indiana, a healthcare provider may be held liable for medical malpractice if they provide treatment to a patient that fails to meet the applicable standard of care in the patient’s particular case. Although the specific details of the standard of care vary from patient to patient, the law generally describes the standard of care as the treatment decisions and actions that other healthcare providers of similar training and experience would take in similar circumstances. Thus, a patient may have a medical malpractice claim if they can prove they suffered harm or complications from a provider’s treatment decisions that their peers would not have made had they been treating them.
How an Indiana Medical Malpractice Attorney Can Help
A personal injury attorney in Indianapolis can help you seek fair compensation from a negligent healthcare provider or the Indiana medical malpractice compensation fund by:
- Investigating your claims to recover evidence of a provider’s negligent treatment
- Explaining how to file a medical malpractice claim in Indiana
- Determining if the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act applies to your situation
- Documenting your injuries and losses to determine how much compensation you deserve to recover
- Identifying liable parties
- Gathering your medical records
- Reviewing applicable medical malpractice coverage
- Preparing your legal claim to submit to the medical review panel
- Ensuring you file your claims within applicable deadlines
- Walking you through the legal process
- Proving damages in a malpractice case that provides sufficient detail to insurance companies
- Vigorously negotiating on your behalf for a fair settlement
- Advocating your case in court when litigation becomes necessary to fight for a favorable result
Let our experienced Indianapolis medical malpractice lawyer handle all the details of your case while you focus on your recovery. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Types of Compensation Available
Indiana medical malpractice compensation can cover medical expenses and provide financial relief for various economic or non-economic losses you sustain due to injuries, illnesses, or health complications caused by negligent medical care. Your compensation award in your medical malpractice case can include money for your:
- Costs of additional medical treatment and rehabilitation to treat injuries, new illnesses, medical complications, or aggravation of existing conditions
- Long-term disability care, if you develop severe impairments that affect your ability to perform daily activities
- Lost wages from the extra time you need to take off work to recover from the complications caused by negligent care
- Loss of future earning capacity if you become disabled from your job or other kinds of work
- Physical pain and anguish from injuries or additional/more intensive medical treatment
- Emotional trauma and distress, including from severe scarring/disfigurement or disabilities, loss of quality of life, or reduced life expectancy
Our legal team can carefully document your losses and calculate a fair settlement value for your claim. Our settlement negotiations aim to ease the financial burden brought on by the impact medical malpractice has had on your life.
Indiana’s Cap on Medical Malpractice Damages
The Indiana medical malpractice cap limits the compensation a patient can recover from liable healthcare professionals. For an act of malpractice that occurred after June 30, 1999, and before July 1, 2017, a patient can recover $1.25 million. For an act of malpractice that occurred after June 30, 2017, and before July 1, 2019, a patient can recover $1.65 million. Finally, for an act of malpractice after June 30, 2019, a patient can recover a total of $1.8 million.
Furthermore, individual healthcare providers also have caps on their total individual liability. For an act of malpractice that occurred after June 30, 1999, and before July 1, 2017, a patient can recover $250,000 from an individual provider. For an act of malpractice that occurred after June 30, 2017, and before July 1, 2019, a patient can recover $400,000 from an individual provider. Finally, for an act of malpractice committed after June 30, 2019, a patient can recover up to $500,000 from an individual provider.
Any compensation awarded to a patient in a settlement or judgment that exceeds the statutory caps will come from the Indiana Patient Compensation Fund (PCF). The Indiana PCF may also help patients recover compensation for losses that exceed a provider’s medical malpractice insurance coverage.
How Compensation Is Calculated in Indiana
A patient who suffers harm due to negligent medical services in Indiana can calculate their compensation through various documents and evidence. For economic losses, a patient can refer to bills, invoices, and receipts for additional medical treatment, insurance costs, and long-term care to calculate their past losses. Medical experts can also testify about the nature and cost of future treatment and care the patient may need. Patients can refer to their pay stubs and income statements to calculate their lost wages from missed work and rely on financial and vocational experts to testify about the loss of future earning ability.
Medical experts can also testify about the nature and severity of the patient’s condition to support claims for non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering. The patient and their family members and friends can testify about the effects the patient’s injury or condition has had on their ability to accomplish daily tasks or participate in activities they enjoy and the emotional struggles they have endured due to their condition. Because non-economic losses do not have financial figures like bills or income statements on which to base compensation, an insurance adjuster or jury must use their common sense and lived experiences to value the emotional and personal losses a patient has suffered due to medical malpractice.
Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim in Indiana
Under Indiana’s statute of limitations for injury claims, you typically have two years after suffering harm due to surgical errors, anesthesia errors, or other forms of medical malpractice to file a lawsuit against your negligent healthcare providers. However, various rules can affect when this two-year period begins to run. For example, the limitations period may not start to run if a healthcare provider willfully conceals evidence of their negligence. Furthermore, children who suffered malpractice before age six have until their eighth birthday.
Finally, the “discovery” rule can also delay the limitation period until the patient discovers or should have discovered through reasonable diligence the injury or harm caused by negligent medical care and the identities of the provider(s) responsible for that negligent care.
In Indiana, you cannot file a medical malpractice lawsuit until you receive an opinion from a medical panel of the Indiana Department of Insurance. However, you can bypass medical panel review if you seek less than $15,000 in compensation or if you and the defendant(s) agree to waive review. You must file for medical panel review before the limitations period expires on your claim. After the panel reviews your claim and issues an opinion, you have 90 days to file your malpractice lawsuit.
Ready to take the first step to justice? Contact the Law Office of Kelley J. Johnson today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a member of our medical malpractice team to discuss your legal options for pursuing compensation.
