Medical malpractice insurance

Life is too short to go on uninsured, and in a rate cost crisis, the right insurance can be the difference between inconvenience and disaster. With that in mind, if you’re in the market for insurance, this is the best place to get the best deals online. Today’s database- driven technology enables us to bring you price quotes on policies, constantly updated specifications, and the best information about medical malpractice insurance anywhere. Now that you’ve found us, relax – stellar insurance at a reasonable price is just a few clicks away.

Whopping medical malpractice insurance premiums are forcing many doctors to stop practicing high-risk specialties, such as brain surgery, orthopedic surgery, and delivering babies. The result, of course, is a medical malpractice insurance rate cost crisis that is leaving many of the most needy patients out of options for medical care. In Pennsylvania, where 72 percent of the doctors polled by the Pennsylvania Medical Society say they have deferred purchasing new equipment or hiring new staff due to sudden, steep increases in their medical malpractice insurance premiums. In Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, medical malpractice premiums in 2002 jumped between 10 and 40 percent. In Florida, obstetricians in south Broward County stopped delivering babies at the Memorial Healthcare System because they can't afford their insurance premiums and the hospitals in the system won't allow them to go uninsured.

In 2001, eight states saw two or more liability insurers raise rates by at least 30 percent, according to the American Medical Association, and doctors in more than a dozen states saw one or more insurers charge at least 25 percent more for medical malpractice insurance. Doctors blame the rate cost crisis and say that hefty sums awarded in malpractice lawsuits have driven their medical liability premiums through the roof. >From 1996 to 1999, jury awards for medical malpractice claims jumped 76 percent, according to Jury Verdict Research. As a result, many doctors and patient advocates in states that don't have laws to limit the dollar amount of jury awards fear increasingly large verdicts threaten to collapse the health care system by driving up medical malpractice insurance premiums

To fend off litigation and cope with steep medical malpractice insurance premiums, doctors say they are being forced to take defensive measures, such as:

• Practicing defensive medicine by ordering additional, sometimes unnecessary medical tests that insurers might be reluctant to pay for, but that doctors want to protect themselves from lawsuits. Deferring the hiring of new staff, or even downsizing staff, sparking patient backlogs and making it difficult for patients to get timely appointments.



• Ceasing to practice certain high-risk specialties, such as obstetricians/gynecologists who stop delivering babies because the threat of patient litigation is so high.



• Moving their practices to regions with lower medical malpractice insurance costs, or stopping the practice of medicine altogether. Regions with high liability costs might have difficulty attracting new doctors, creating a lack of consumer choice of physicians. Make sure that before you seek medical malpractice insurance, there is not a rate cost crisis in your area. If there is, perhaps you should reconsider purchasing this kind of coverage.

Few things in life are more tenuous than your health. Protecting yourself and your personal health is not only important, but it also will help you sleep better. Our database contains tons of information about medical malpractice insurance, about the current malpractice rate cost crisis, and about insurance of every kind. We hope you’ve found our website helpful, and whenever you’re in the market for insurance in the future, we hope to see you again.

Click here for a Free Insurance Rate Quote.

© 2004 Compareinsureusa - All rights reserved.

Home Page / Site Map / Medical malpractice insurance