Neighboring states fear medical liability rate increases

July 5,2007

Pennsylvania's doctors, especially high-risk surgeons are concerned that a state-mandated change in insurance could result in an overnight 20 percent increase in their premiums according to July 1st's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pennsylvania doctors are required by state law to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance. Doctors purchase the first $500,000 in the private insurance market; the second $500,000 in coverage is provided through the state's MCARE program the article said. The Pennsylvania Department of Insurance is debating a change that would require doctors to purchase the first $750,000 in the private market leaving the remaining $250,000 to be covered by the MCARE program.

Read the Post-Gazette article.

Three statewide specialty physician organizations came together last week to request that the Governor maintain the current medical liability coverage levels in order to stabilize premiums for 2008. The Pennsylvania Neurosurgical Society, Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society, and Pennsylvania Physicians for the Protection of Specialty Care (3PSC) wrote Governor Rendell with the request in an effort to avoid another New Year's Eve crisis of high-risk specialty surgeons unable to afford their medical liability insurance premiums due Jan. 1.

According to yesterday's New York Times, New York state Governor Spitzer announced the approval of a 14 percent increase in medical malpractice insurance rates, the largest in a decade. Sharply critical of the increase, the Medical Society of the State of New York stated that the increase would "severely worsen the health care access crisis that has already resulted in shortages in several specialties all across New York State." The society said the increase would mean that a neurosurgeon in Long Island would now have to pay $309,311 for one year's coverage, while an ob-gyn specialist in Brooklyn or Queens would have to pay $173,061. Donna M. Williams, executive director of the New York district of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said "the constant increase in premiums is forcing obstetricians across the state to give up the practice of obstetrics and simply do the practice of gynecology only."

Read the New York Times article.