Ohio OKs Med-Mal Backup; Docs Complain Caps Aren’t Working
AP Wire Service
Ohio would create an insurance company to protect doctors and hospitals should private medical malpractice insurers leave the market under a bill approved by the Senate recently.
The bill, which passed unanimously in the House and Senate, is considered a “safety net” if doctors were unable to get malpractice insurance from private companies. The legislation is one of several attempts to address soaring malpractice rates. Under the bill, the state Superintendent of Insurance could launch the company if the state determines that a lack of available malpractice insurance is hurting the delivery of health care in Ohio.
The Medical Liability Underwriting Association would be funded by about $12 million left in a Department of Insurance fund from a previous state-created insurance company. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Larry Flowers, a Columbus-area Republican, goes back to the House for approval of changes, including a requirement that the bill would take effect immediately after Gov. Bob Taft signed it. Most bills become law 90 days after a governor’s signature.
The state says the five medical malpractice companies underwriting 72 percent of all policies in Ohio increased their rates an average of 30 percent last year. Three of them have had financial problems in recent months, said Ann Womer Benjamin, director of the insurance department.
If the insurance market deteriorates, “it will happen very fast, and we’ll need to act very quickly,” she said. To try to slow rate increases, Taft signed a bill in last year capping damage awards for the most severe malpractice cases at $1 million. Republican lawmakers, who see the company as a last resort, defeated Democratic attempts to require the state to create it immediately.
Sen. Scott Nein, a Middletown Republican, said lawmakers weren’t interested in something that unnecessarily competed with the private sector. The company should address “only a crisis of availability, not affordability,” Nein said.
Doctors have been asking lawmakers for help following sharp increases in medical malpractice insurance rates. Some doctors say they’ll be forced to retire, leave Ohio or drop risky procedures like delivering babies. Now, a group of doctors is supporting a lawmaker’s desire to grill insurance companies on why malpractice premiums are rising again despite caps imposed last year on jury awards for pain and suffering.
Rates are expected to rise 10 percent to 40 percent this year from the five major companies providing medical malpractice coverage in Ohio, according to the state Department of Insurance. That follows average increases of 30 percent last year.
“My local physicians are telling me they’re at their wits’ end,” state Sen. Kirk Schuring said Monday. The Canton Republican has asked Senate President Doug White and House Speaker Larry Householder to grant lawmakers subpoena power to question executives of the five companies.
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