By Robert E. White, Jr., Sr. Vice President, Regional Operating Officer The Doctors Company/FPIC Yet another large verdict has been rendered against a bare Florida doctor. Most recently, in September 2011, a jury found an OB/GYN and his professional association responsible for failing to detect physical disabilities of a child before it was born and
By Matt Gracey Often in medicine’s tort-reform efforts, we get so focused on the politics of changing unfair laws that we lose sight of the low-hanging fruit. How many dollars have gone into trying to convince the politicians to limit the number of lawsuits against doctors and hospitals? How much progress have we really made,
By Matt Gracey Already we are seeing doctors either sell out to hospitals or join mega groups. Many of those hospitals’ doctors enjoy sovereign immunity, as do VA doctors and many other public hospital doctors. Many of the mega groups, at least in South Florida, do not require or even encourage their doctors to be
By: Matt Gracey Many doctors’ employment contracts require malpractice-insurance-policy “tails” to be purchased so as to effectively turn a claims-made policy into a more desirable occurrence form of? coverage. In the last year, for the first time ever, a healthy market for optional stand-alone tail policies has developed. Instead of only being able to purchase
By: Matt Gracey Many doctors’ employment contracts require malpractice-insurance-policy “tails” to be purchased so as to effectively turn a claims-made policy into a more desirable occurrence form of? coverage. In the last year, for the first time ever, a healthy market for optional stand-alone tail policies has developed. Instead of only being able to purchase
Q: With a more difficult, “hard market” predicted to hit Florida’s malpractice insurance market soon, what should we be considering in our medical practice to be prepared? A: Just like creating hurricane plans before the fury of a storm descends upon you, now is a good time to be positioning your practice for the impending
By Matt Gracey Florida doctors are now enjoying a very “soft” buyer-centered market cycle, although I believe this is close to ending. Back in 2000 we were in a similar market cycle, which led to many insurers pulling out of the state and the others dramatically increasing their malpractice-insurance rates a year or two
By Matt Gracey The market cycle for malpractice insurance in Florida has fairly predictable cycles, with extreme fluctuations in pricing and insurers’ underwriting. For example, the late 1990s and early 2000s were similar to market cycle we are presently in, which is the last bit of a “soft”, doctor-friendly section. As insurers lowered their rates
By: Matt Gracey The claims exposure for doctors going into nursing homes is much higher than for their normal practice, so most malpractice insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for this exposure. Exceptions are sometimes made in the policy to cover you going into nursing homes specifically to see your own patients, and for very limited
By Tammy Clarke, CPA President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act proposes a new and unprecedented Medicare tax that will directly affect many physicians. The tax, which goes into effect on January 1, 2013, is made up of two parts: an additional .9% surtax on earned income in excess of $250,000 for married couples