Articles posted by Michael Matray

Almost two years after the U.S. government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency, federal courts are beginning to narrow the application of the Public Readiness & Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act. The Trump Administration invoked the act via emergency declaration in early 2020 to shield providers of pandemic countermeasures from civil liability. A recent, precedent-setting federal […]

Medical malpractice insurer Curi recently announced that Jason Sandner will take over as its next chief executive officer on July 1, 2021, when current CEO Dale Jenkins steps down after more than 25 years of service to the company. Sandner is currently the company’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer. Jenkins will continue to […]

The U.S. medical professional liability (MPL) insurance segment experienced a notable deterioration in underwriting results in 2019. The already dim prospects for the segment’s profitability have been clouded by COVID-19, with uncertainties regarding impacts to loss costs as well as premium refunds and the ability to put planned rate increases into effect, according to a […]

America’s independent physician practices face unprecedented, devastating financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting, on average, a 55 percent decrease in revenue, and a 60 percent decrease in patient volume, since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. “New MGMA data show that 97 percent of medical group practices have experienced a negative financial impact […]

On Aug 1 2017, The Washington Post published an article, “In Trump Era, Lobbyists Boldly Take Credit for Writing a Bill to Protect Their Industry,” which assailed PIAA — the insurance industry trade association that represents a range of entities doing business in the medical professional liability arena — for its involvement in drafting the […]

Amidst Healthcare Uncertainty, PIAA 2017 Medical Liability Conference Focused on Current Challenges, Future Concerns Hosted at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., with the backdrop of a Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act stalled between the U.S. House and Senate, the 2017 PIAA Medical Liability Conference convened from May 17 […]

Federally capping noneconomic damages in medical malpractice verdicts has been the Holy Grail of medical professional liability tort reforms since the first medical malpractice insurance crisis in the 1970s. During that period, states like California passed noneconomic (pain-and-suffering) damage caps as part of more comprehensive medical liability tort reform packages. These caps offered the medical […]

Patients for Fair Compensation Continues Push for Administrative Solution to Medical Malpractice Claims in Tennessee Patients for Fair Compensation is making another push to change the way medical professional liability claims are adjudicated against physicians in Tennessee. The state’s medical association, trial bar and largest insurer of physician liability are saying, no way. Founded in […]

If 2% of Physicians Are Responsible for Half of Malpractice Payouts, How Should We Intervene with These Outliers? Last month, the Journal of Patient Safety published “The Detection, Analysis and Significance of Physician Clustering in Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Payouts,” an analysis of data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) that indicates only 1.8 percent […]