Latest Medical Malpractice Insurance News

March 8, 2010

Medical malpractice insurance market expected to soften

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: chicago malpractice insurance, doctors, heath insurance, Insurance, liability insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, medmal, Patients, Physicians, President Barack Obama, Tort Reform — Mike @ 2:11 pm

side note: Wow! I found this to be a surprise. Even with the investment sector still moving in relative chaos, the highly respected Standard & Poor’s Rating Service is forecasting a continued soft market for medical liability insurance. What does this do to the argument that medical malpractice insurance rates are climbing unchecked through the roof?

The medical malpractice insurance market appears likely to soften more, as insurers continue to battle what one ratings service calls “significant challenges.”

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service is forecasting that the market will continue to soften as prices declined at a more moderate pace.

The ratings service notes that medical malpractice insurance writers apparently achieved better operating results in 2008 and through the first nine months of 2009 than it had forecast two years ago because of
larger-than-expected favorable reserve development.

“Even without the ups and downs of the pricing cycle, medical malpracticeinsurers face significant challenges, including volatile losses, the long-tail nature of the reserves and exposures, and the potential for adverse legal verdicts,” Standard & Poor’s said in a statement. “We have only seen a handful of insurers sustain profitability throughout pricing cycles, and they have generally been the larger, more diversified insurers in a highly fragmented industry.”

The ratings service said it expects many medical malpractice monoline companies to ultimately report a stable or improved combined ratio for 2009, mainly because of reserve releases, a trend it anticipates will continue through 2010 and mitigate the expected decline in prices.
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March 4, 2010

Healthcare Bill being pushed by White House to be passed by Easter?

Filed under: Congress, Health Insurance Coverage, History, Insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, Op/Ed, Physicians, President Barack Obama, Tort Reform — admin @ 11:13 am

President Obama has made a clear and concise statement to the leadership in both Chambers that he wants to get his bill passed ASAP.

After scouring blogs on the right, left and middle….it doesn’t appear that the President will have enough votes to get this done. Politics however, can change in a moments notice. We know that deals are being made behind closed doors….so it’ll be interesting to see if the President has enough in his back pocket to dangle in front of conservaDems and Republicans.

Will the hard-working physicians in this country get what they want in this bill? They desperately need protection from the trial lawyers who come after them with such frivolous lawsuits. We need to lower the rates of medical malpractice insurance so docs can get back to doing what they do best: practicing medicine and helping their patients.

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March 2, 2010

President Obama will consider 4 GOP lawmaker options on Health Care

Filed under: Congress, Insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, Op/Ed, Physicians, President Barack Obama, Tort Reform — admin @ 1:56 pm

President Barack Obama has decided to take 4 Republican ideas and move forward to try and find some common ground and get something done with the proposed health care bill. The four ideas are:

1. Going after fraud by using undercover patients.
2. Putting more money back into the pockets of physicians that take medicare patients…..basically increasing medicare payment rates.
3. Issuing grants to states to limit med-mal lawsuits.
4. Expanding HSA’s in conjunction with high-deductible insurance policies.

I think that the President is offering this gesture, which will almost certainly be shot down by the Republican leadership, because it allows him to say “Hey, I tried to work with GOP leaders, but they wouldn’t work with me, even when I offered to include some of their very own ideas in the health care bill.”

We home that the President also listens to physicians and makes sure that they don’t get the short end of the stick when the final bill is released. We need physician advocate groups such as SERMO and Docs4PatientCare to be heard on The Hill, and these politicians to realize that the best people to ask on how to help fix our health care problems in this country is to call upon the one group that is in the trenches every single day: Physicians.

You can read the President’s press release here.

As usual…..I end this post urging all physicians to request a free medical liability insurance quote. There have been too many instances in the past where we’ve seen brokers “say” they have access to multiple insurance companies…but actually do not. MyMedicalMalpracticeInsurance.com has access to
EVERY single insurance company in the nation. Our brokers have been helping physicians and other health care professionals find the lowest rates, with the best terms for over 35 years.

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March 1, 2010

New Study: Physicians average hours have dropped

Filed under: Congress, History, Insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, Patients, Physicians, President Barack Obama, Tort Reform — admin @ 1:46 pm

A new study that appeared recently in the Journal of the American Medical Associated shows that doctors have been consistently shedding hours from their work week. The average hours dropped from 55 to 51 between 1996 and 2008. The drop in average hours equals losing 36,000 doctors in a decade.

Studies like these have to be taken seriously especially as the Boomers continue to retire. We know from previous reports that there is a serious doctor shortage looming. This is why we here at MyMedicalMalpracticeInsurance.com were so bothered by the 21% Medicare cuts. What is the federal government thinking? Will this force physicians to stop accepting Medicare patients? I think that answer is across the board. If your practice relies heavily on Medicare patients……then probably not. If it’s a small percentage, then yes, I see that as a strong possibility.

Some the reasons we think there has been a drop in the average amount of hours worked:

1. Being hassled by patients…..we feel that doctors in America have become undervalued, and people have started treating them that way.
2. In high risk specialties, the risk of lawsuits has gone up…..which means your medical malpractice insurance costs go up. (a quick side note, make sure you’re not paying too much for your liability insurance, there are a lot of brokers who don’t have access to all the insurance companies, which in turn inhibits you from finding the best, most cost effective solution: request a free professional medical liability quote.)
3. Physicians want “a life”. I think they’d rather go home at 5 or 6pm then stay till 8 or 9. They have families, and like everyone else, they want to be an active part.
4. Amounts dropping for reimbursements….and costs increasing.
5. Politicians have demonized doctors for their own gain and agenda…..

The strangest thing about this study, and the general buzz around it is the drop to 51 working hours a week. 51! Most people would be screaming if they had to work 51 hours a week……we need to get back to the days when such an important part of our society was not taken for granted. Maybe when people can’t make an appointment with a physician…maybe then we’ll see an about-face in attitude.

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Sen. Dick Durbin on medical malpractice reform at White House health summit

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: chicago malpractice insurance, heath insurance, Illinois, Insurance, liability insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, medmal, Patients, President Barack Obama, Tort Reform — Mike @ 1:32 pm

side note: Here is insight on the medical malpractice debate from the second most powerful member of the Senate majority party.

DURBIN: Mr. President, I’ve been biding my time throughout this entire meeting. I thank you for inviting us on the issue of medical malpractice. Before I was elected to Congress, I worked in a courtroom. For years, I defended doctors and hospitals, and for years I sued them on behalf of people who were victims of medical malpractice. So I’ve sat at both tables in a courtroom. At least many years ago, I think I kind of understood this area of the law better than some.

But I listen time and again as our friends on the other side when they’re asked what are the most important things you can do when it comes to our health care system in America. The first thing they say is medical malpractice. It’s the first thing they say. Today, it was the first thing that was said.

The point that’s been made by the president is if we do believe the Congressional Budget Office, when Orrin Hatch asked them how much will we save if we implement the Republican plan on medical malpractice from the House, they said $54 billion over 10 years; $5.4 billion a year is a lot of money, except in the context of the $2.5 trillion bill that we pay each year for health care. It represents one-fifth of 1 percent of the amount of money we spend each year on health care.

The Congressional Budget Office said something else. They said and as you lose accountability for what the doctors and hospitals are doing, more people will die — 4,800 a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s reference to this study.
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February 26, 2010

White House Health Care Summit and Medical Malpractice Insurance Reform

Filed under: Congress, Insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, Op/Ed, Patients, Physicians, President Obama, Tort Reform — admin @ 10:17 am

Yesterday’s White House health summit didn’t produce much of anything yesterday except to show that the Republicans and Democrats are still extremely far from agreeing on much of anything.

We do know from past statements from President Obama that he is interested in working with the leaders of the Republican party to try and do something about the rising, and sometimes obscene costs of professional medical liability insurance.

Yesterday however, we heard from the second most powerful Democratic in the Senate, Dick Durbin from Illinois. He brought up medical malpractice insurance and had some things to say that clearly shows that even though President Obama is interested in working with the Republicans on this, Democrats may not budge. Durbin, before he joined the Senate was a medical malpractice insurance trial lawyer that represented both sides.

A few quotes from Senator Dick Durbin, thanks to the transcript provided by the Washington Post.

Now, the Institute of Medicine tells us 98,000 people a year die in America because of medical malpractice. I think there are things that we have put in this bill to change that. Most of you have heard of this Dr. Gawande. We’ve read him. I’ve talked to him on the phone. His “Checklist Manifesto” is a very basic approach to reducing medical errors, which is what we should be focused on. (more…)

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February 24, 2010

PIA Hails Removal of Medical Malpractice Insurers From Bill Restricting Insurance Antitrust Exemption

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: doctors, heath insurance, Insurance, liability insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, medmal, Patients, Physicians, President Barack Obama, Tort Reform — Mike @ 1:41 pm

side note: This is actually a big deal. If the medical liability insurance industry had lost its anti-trust exemption, in all likelihood, malpractice premiums would have risen simply out of fear of the unknown. Sharing underwriting data is key to the medmal insurers ability to forecast losses.

The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) is hailing the elimination of medical malpractice insurers from the draft of a bill restricting the limited federal insurance antitrust exemption under the McCarran-Ferguson Act.

According to the draft of the bill, to be called the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, posted on the House Rules Committee website as “text of bill to be introduced,” the scope of the bill has been narrowed to cover health insurers, but not medical malpractice insurers.

“The inclusion of medical malpractice insurance, a property/casualty product, was particularly inappropriate in that it did not relate directly to health insurance,” said PIA National Director of Federal Affairs Mike Becker. “A reduction in medical malpractice insurance rates is best achieved through separate legislation addressing tort reform.”
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February 23, 2010

A New Study on How to Prevent and Control Hypertension

Filed under: Congress, Health Education, Health Insurance Coverage, Insurance, Medical Malpractice Insurance, Op/Ed, Physicians — admin @ 7:59 am

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has released a new report that identifies “high-priority areas on which public health organizations and professionals should focus in order to accelerate progress in hypertension reduction and control.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asked the IOM to create this report because hypertension is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. One in six Americans die every year from high blood pressure. This in turn puts enormous pressure on our health care system, it’s estimated that $73.4 billion dollars, direct and indirect was spent in 2009.

With the health care debate front and center in most conversations in this country, we need to start battling the costs associated with the way we treat our citizens….in addition, we need to educate people how to take better care of themselves. The two areas that they can focus on is eating more fruits and vegetables and getting more physical activity during the day. With the constant rising costs of medical malpractice insurance for doctors, health care costs for individuals and group plans, and an aging population that is going to strain our economy…..we need to start making these changes yesterday.

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February 22, 2010

February 19, 2010

Another view of the recent Illinois Supreme Court verdict on Medical Malpractice Insurance

side note: Here’s a good look at the potential impact — or lack thereof — by the Illinois Supreme Court decision on medical malpractice caps.

Although medical malpractice awards climbed in the years before Illinois put limits on them, opponents disagree on the impact of the recent Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the caps.

The average award for emotional harm in medical malpractice cases increased 437 percent in the seven years leading up to creation of the 2005 law capping non-economic damages, according to data from the Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter. Rates were highest in 2004, the year before award caps were enacted, with an average award of $4.8 million.

Physicians argue that high awards drive up insurance premiums and make health care more expensive.

“When the cap was reinstated in 2005, premiums for Chicago physicians stabilized and even began to shrink,” said J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association in a statement after the court ruling. Before caps on damages, premiums rose steadily 10 to 12 percent a year between 1997 and 2005, Rohack said.

The Medical Malpractice Act limited the amount victims could receive for emotional harm to $500,000 from doctors and $1 million from hospitals.The Illinois Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional earlier this month. This was the third time the court ruled against medical malpractice award caps.

Critics of award caps say the averages don’t tell the entire story.

“A single larger case can skew those numbers,” said Peter Flowers, president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. “So looking at [the award amounts] as an average, isn’t really a clear assessment.”
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