With regard to financial strength, the principal rating system of the insurance world is A.M. When buying medical malpractice insurance it is really important to choose the right insurer - one that has been around a good while, has developed a good reputation, and is financially rock stable. How to Chose a Medical Malpractice Insurance Company This also results in you obtaining better premium rates within the context of your geographical region. It is important to research which carriers have had more success in defending claims in your specialty before you choose a carrier. As such, they develop proficiency for better defending some specialties than others. Malpractice insurers have had different experiences defending different specialties. Here is a good summary of Malpractice Laws by state. Here, litigation is commonplace and premiums are sky-high, sometimes more than six figures annually for high-risk specialties such as surgery and OB. These states have no effective tort reform and see some of the highest malpractice payouts per capita. Interestingly, many of these state legislatures have a physician in office.Īt the other end of the spectrum are Illinois and a bunch of states in the North East- DC, PA, NY, NJ, and Delaware. Most of these states have seen among the lowest malpractice payouts per capita. Indiana has a process for pre-litigation screening by a panel, apart from a cap on total damages. Some of these states are CA, CO, KS, TX, Alaska, NC, and the Dakotas. States with effective tort reform, such as caps on non-economic damages, have seen a significant decrease in litigation followed by a fall in average premiums. Click here to see historical rates by state and specialty. Since 1991, Medical Liability Monitor has been publishing an annual rate survey for 3 specialties: Int Med, Gen Surgery, and Ob/Gyn (representing the broad spectrum of rates across specialties). The states that are shown deeper in color have higher premiums than the lighter shade ones. This map of the USA shows how average premiums of a primary care doctor varies from state to state. Malpractice Insurance Premiums by Specialty and State Coupled with the fact that the number of claims filed has been decreasing, premiums have fallen 20% since 2006. Since then, they have gradually fallen and largely remained steady over the last decade or so. There was another crisis in the late 1990’s, leading to premiums peaking in 2002. As examples, in 2016 MAGMutual returned $25M to policyholders in the form of about 10-12% reduction in premiums (based on how long a policyholder has been with the company) and in 2015 TDC returned $28M in dividends to policyholders. For this reason, they are called “participating” carriers. These companies are mutually owned by policyholders and often return profits back to them in the form of dividends or rate cuts. Examples include The Doctors Company (TDC) from CA- that operates nationwide and MAGMutual from Georgia, which operates in 10 states of the SouthEast. These originally physician-owned MLPI companies now control half the market share. In response to this dearth of availability, physicians across the nation turned to their state Professional Associations and formed their own malpractice insurance companies, jointly owned by them. In the early 1970s, several private underwriters left the segment due to increasing payouts and low premiums. The medical malpractice insurance industry tends to go through cycles.
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