Throughout a normal business day I probably explain the difference between a claims-made physician liability policy and an occurrence physician liability policy at least a dozen times. Most physicians will only qualify for one policy or the other. But, as the practice of medicine continues to evolve, new options become available and are worth knowing […]

side note: California has long been on the cutting edge of medical liability tort reform. It was the first state in the nation to institute a cap on non-economic damages with the 1975 Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) of 1975. The cap helped California stabilize liability costs, particularly for specialty and high-risk services such […]

side note: Medical malpractice insurance premiums are threatened by a case before the Missouri Supreme Court. The state’s high court is currently considering the constitutionality of Missouri’s $1.2 million cap on non-economic, pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice cases. In the case being considered, the plaintiff’s estate was awarded $1 million for past medical bills and […]

side note: The Louisiana Medical Society took heed from the woes of states like Wisconsin and New Hampshire. Both state governments raided their Patient Compensation Fund as a way of balancing their budgets. Both states’ medical societies fought the move in court; both medical societies came out winners. While both PCFs were eventually given their […]

side note: I find this article interesting for two reasons: 1. Caps on non-economic damages have proven to reduce medical malpractice insurance premiums in states that have them and a federal cap 0n non-economic damages has long been championed as the solution to skyrocketing healthcare costs by the Republican Party; 2. Applying a one-size-fits-all federal […]

side note: Since 1975, capping non-economic (pain and suffering) damages in medical malpractice lawsuits has been considered the Gold Standard of effective tort reforms. There is gobs of data supporting the conclusion that state’s with non-economic damage caps have considerably lower medical malpractice insurance premiums than states of a comparable size and demographic that do […]

side note: This article details the reasons why many doctors are moving from solo, self-employed practice to working for a hospital system. This trend is troubling to many in the healthcare industry because it concentrates the physician force in certain areas. One of the reasons that many physicians are opting to work for a hospital […]

Side Note: A new database has just gone live in Illinois and it contains information on all of Illinois’ 46,000 licensed physicians. The database, available at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s website, at idfpr.com under the “physician profile” link, is a reincarnation of a previous website the state shut down last year. […]