title: Advantages and disadvantages of the Belgian not-only-fault system for medical incidents.
abstract: In 2010, the Belgian compensation system for medical incidents was reformed, in order to overcome some important deficiencies of court procedures. This resulted in a not-only-fault compensation system, following the establishment of the Fund for Medical Accidents (FMA). This paper seeks to clarify the main advantages and disadvantages of this reform. After all, the legislator paid little attention to the impact on physicians, who also seem to be insufficiently informed. However, currently the FMA experiences a significant delay in processing compensation requests. The true effects of the not-only-fault system for patients and physicians as well as for health care quality therefore still remain unclear today.
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Applied Economics , Hasselt University , Hasselt , Belgium.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vandersteegen
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Applied Economics , Hasselt University , Hasselt , Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Marneffe
authors.affiliation: b Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences , Hasselt University , Hasselt , Belgium.|c Department of Public Health , Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.|d Department of General Internal Medicine , Ghent University Hospital , Ghent , Belgium.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vandijck
mesh_terms: D035881:Compensation and Redress; D019300:Medical Errors; D011787:Quality of Health Care
keywords: Compensation; Health care quality; Medical incident; Not-only-fault system