Some options to help cut high liability fees

My firm has many physician clients, and we routinely are asked by doctors throughout the country to answer questions on a variety of topics. But we have never been as inundated with calls as we have been in the last year regarding the liability insurance situation.

Doctors from all specialties and all regions of the country have called us looking for ways to reduce their liability premiums or find alternatives to their traditional carriers.

Just from among our own clientele, a few situations come to mind:

• A physician in Florida considers paying $80,000-plus for tail coverage as he goes to part-time, while the insurer has just been downgraded from an "A" to a "C" rating. This physician wonders: Is spending this kind of money worth it, given the chances that the insurance company may not be around when he needs it?