Nevada doctors ponder fixes to tort woes

A local, physician-owned company would understand the market better than national companies. But doctors say tort reform will be key to fixing liability crisis.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. April 1, 2002.

Nevada physicians find themselves in the same spot they were 30 years ago: facing a medical liability crisis and studying the possibility of a doctor-owned insurance company.

Doctors on a recently formed task force are taking a preliminary look at the idea of setting up a physician-owned insurance company that would give them some control in an out-of-control medical liability market.

While the options are being studied, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn stepped in last month to offer immediate relief to physicians who can't find affordable liability insurance. Fearing that an alarming number of doctors otherwise would be forced to leave the state or stop performing high-risk procedures, he announced that money from Nevada's emergency fund will pay for an essential insurance association for the next 12 to 18 months.

"But the idea is that the company the governor is forming could eventually transition into a physician-owned or stock mutual company," said Las Vegas family physician Robert W. Shreck, MD, president-elect of the Nevada State Medical Assn.

Nevada is among a handful of states -- including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Mississippi -- where physicians are experiencing sticker shock upon receipt of their liability insurance bills. Some physicians saw their rates double from the previous year while others can't find insurance at all because companies tightened rules about who they will insure.

Saying they can't afford to stay in the market, four insurance companies offering physician coverage have left Nevada since September 2001. St. Paul Co. pulled out of the medical liability market nationwide. [...]