California keeps malpractice rates in check.Strong competition among a handful of healthy carriers and a law limiting damages in medical malpractice Improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. cases have helped control insurance rate hikes in California and ensure there is adequate coverage for even the most risky specialties. "Our insurance premiums are increasing but at a predictable and stable rate," said Dr. Michael Sexton Michael Sexton (born March 5, 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Blues between 1990 and 2000. A defender, Sexton was an All Australian in both 1996 and 1997. Michael Sexton is member of the AFL "Laws of the Game" or Rules Committee. , a San Rafael San Rafael (săn rəfĕl`), residential city (1990 pop. 48,404), seat of Marin co., W Calif., a suburb of San Francisco on the northern shore of San Francisco Bay; inc. 1913. emergency medical specialist who is president-elect of the California Medical Association. "At the moment we don't see any significant coverage threats." The marketplace is dominated by a half-dozen carders who have more than two-thirds of the market share, with 47 other licensed carriers divvying up the rest, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. state Department of Insurance figures. The largest carriers include several physician-owned companies such as Norcal Mutual Insurance Co., publicly held Los Angeles-based SCPIE SCPIE Southern California Physicians Insurance Exchange Holdings Inc. and CAP-MPT, a physician cooperative in which members assume personal responsibility for any liabilities. By far the most dominant factor in the marketplace is the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) of 1975 was a California law designed lower medical malpractice premiums for Californians. Parts Micra Consists of the following parts: The law limits attorney fees and non-economic damages for pain and suffering in malpractice cases to $250,000, something carriers and other medical providers alike cite as a key factor in holding down premiums. Consumer advocates and patient attorneys, meanwhile, say that the law's financial impact is overblown o·ver·blown v. Past participle of overblow. adj. 1. a. Done to excess; overdone: overblown decorations. b. even as it has limited patients' access to the courts. They contend another factor is more important in the marketplace: Proposition 103, which was passed in 1988 and allows the insurance commissioner and outside parties to challenge rate hikes proposed by insurers. Rate regulation "California is probably the most vibrant state for medical malpractice insurance in the country, and as much as insurers have to admit it, rate regulation provides the most stable marketplace," said Doug Heller Doug Heller is a Southern California-based consumer advocate, the executive director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, and a policy expert on insurance industry practices and energy policy. , an insurance specialist with the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights, which has successfully challenged rate hikes by some carriers. A.M. Best Co. has rated most of the state's major companies in the A range, with the exception is SCPIE, but even that carder's problems are largely unrelated to the California marketplace. SCPIE got into trouble over the last few years because of its forays in other states, as well as its decision to enter the re-insurance market, which cost it significant losses after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. It has begun to turn its finances around, reporting lower losses in the third quarter. Norcal, the state's largest carrier, covering some 15,000 doctors, reported a net profit of $6.3 million on $182 million in gross written premiums in 2003 after reporting small losses in 2001 and 2002. Phil Hinderberger, Norcal's general counsel, said the insurer is doing well. A big part of that is related to the state's 1975 tort reform law. "MICRA--that is what brings the stability," he said, noting that the industry pays out perhaps only 2,000 claims per year, with tens of thousands of doctors paying premiums. "All it takes is a couple of big losses to make one company substantially different from another." Average premiums in California have been rising about 12 to 14 percent over the last few years as carders here, as well as elsewhere, weathered a tough national market for insurance. Hinderberger said it's likely those increases will level off in the near term. However, even with the increases, premium rates in California are lower than in other large states, which either do not have tort reform or only recently passed it, according to a recent survey by Medical Liability Monitor, a company that tracks premium rates across the country. The survey found that premiums in several major metropolitan areas of Florida, Illinois, Texas and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of on average were more than twice that paid by internists, general surgeons and obstetricians in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County. Rates were lower in less populated pop·u·late tr.v. pop·u·lat·ed, pop·u·lat·ing, pop·u·lates 1. To supply with inhabitants, as by colonization; people. 2. states such as Idaho, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota South Dakota (dəkō`tə), state in the N central United States. It is bordered by North Dakota (N), Minnesota and Iowa (E), Nebraska (S), and Wyoming and Montana (W). .
High Cost of Insurance
Law cited as factor in L.A.'s modest malpractice premiums.
Tort
Place Internist Surgeon Ob-Gyn Reform
Los Angeles $20,283 $68,007 $89,953 1975
New York Metro $25,091 $108,466 $146,615 None
Chicago $58,514 $183,560 $230,428 None
Miami $69,310 $277,241 $277,241 2003
Sources: American Medical Association and Medical Liability Monitor
2004 rate survey.
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