Medical Liability Insurer Proassurance Buys Houston’s Mid-Continent Agency

Birmingham ,Ala.-based ProAssurance Corp. said it will acquire Mid-Continent General Agency for an undisclosed price. Mid-Continent is a managing general agent, based in Houston, producing about $25 million a year in premiums from ancillary healthcare providers and other professional liability coverages.

Through the third quarter of 2008, Mid-Continent has underwritten approximately $1.5 million of premium for ProAssurance.

The transaction is expected to close in January 2009.

Stan Starnes, chief executive officer of ProAssurance, said his firm thinks the market for ancillary healthcare providers is growing. “This is a segment of the medical professional liability market that we think will continue to experience significant expansion as healthcare evolves in the coming years,” he said.

Philip G. Cabaud, president of Mid-Continent, said ProAssurance’s expansion into this segment of the healthcare market will fill an important niche.

Mid-Continent will produce business for ProAssurance’s excess and surplus lines subsidiary, Red Mountain Casualty, but will continue to place some business into other established markets with which it is already doing business. ProAssurance will derive commission income from business Mid- Continent places with other companies.

Source: ProAssurance