Doctors seeking to drop insurance

Many view the risk as less onerous than paying, for example, $100,000 a year for $250,000 in malpractice coverage.

By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 29, 2002

Across the Tampa Bay area, medical malpractice insurance is getting so expensive that doctors are saying they'd rather do without it.

For clear evidence, look to some of the area's biggest hospitals, where CEOs say the physicians are increasingly asking them for permission to drop their liability coverage.

At St. Joseph's-Baptist Health Care in Hillsborough County, president and CEO Isaac Mallah said doctors have asked for a change in hospital bylaws that would allow them to continue practicing without the insurance.

"It's a complex situation, and it's not an easy thing to fix," Mallah said.

At Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, more than 100 doctors signed a letter asking for a similar change. The request is under study.

Why would doctors be willing to drop their insurance?

Because, says Mallah, doctors in some specialties considered "high-risk" are being asked to pay $100,000-per-year premiums for $250,000 worth of coverage. Some Florida obstetricians have been charged premiums of $200,000, said Lisette Mariner of the Florida Medical Association.

Dropping insurance "is a decision that they're not making because they want to," Mariner said.

Hospital officials say the cost of malpractice insurance has spiraled higher and higher in recent years. Miami-Dade County malpractice rates historically have led the way, but the rest of the state is catching up, Mariner said.

For hospitals, the issue presents several sticky questions, Mallah said. For example: If doctors dropped their coverage, would the hospital's own liability insurance increase? Would hospitals be sued more? Would some doctors be jeopardized financially if their colleagues want to settle a lawsuit?

At All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, officials even considered whether doctors could be brought under the hospital's insurance plan. They quickly discovered the impact would be very high in terms of premiums and liability.

So they are looking for "any and all other options," Miller said.

Officials at Morton Plant Mease Health Care and St. Joseph's-Baptist say they are carefully studying options as well.

Mallah said this issue goes beyond hospitals and their written bylaws. "I think it has the potential of a very significant crisis of access to physicians in the making," he said.

He worries that some doctors will decide to retire early to avoid the financial hassles.

Other doctors will avoid complicated procedures or steer their patients to state-run hospitals, officials said. Why? Because state employees are covered by sovereign immunity, the legal principle that limits the state's liability in civil cases.

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