By Bill Gompers During the last few years many studies have revealed an increasing incidence of clinical errors in hospitals as well as office-based medical practices. Previously, it was common practice not to reveal such occurrences. Considering today’s desire for transparency and established laws, rules, regulations and guidelines, it is widely accepted that patients should
By Dan Reale Many medical professionals neglect to have a regular check-up on their malpractice insurance. A check-up can be accomplished in a very short period of time, requires no office visit, and no fee should be charged for the service. Malpractice insurance is often misunderstood – and many feel that “if it is not
By Matt Gracey The Florida legislature will decide this year about a new proposal from a group in Georgia that is trying to eliminate the tort system for medical-malpractice cases. They propose to create what they describe as a system similar to but operationally different than our workers’ compensation system. They are luring doctors into
By Matt Gracey No matter the election results, one of the political “no-brainers” of 2012 and on seems to be the continued push of the government to combat Medicare fraud. After some 30 years of crunching a wealth of internal data, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has extensively analyzed outcome numbers and
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
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