News in brief - Sept. 12, 2005

Musicians and singers wanted for VA music group - Liability crisis drives out Pa. medical residents - Two W.Va. liability insurers ask to cut rates - New center opens to fight health disparities - Pa. court strikes down law restricting liability claims in civil suits - MSMS predicts Michigan physician shortfall - Dr. Palmisano earns patient safety award

Musicians and singers wanted for VA music group

The VA-National Medical Musical Group is recruiting new members for its symphony orchestra and chorus. The group is open to physicians, dentists, nurses and other health professionals, both VA and non-VA, as well as families and friends.

The group's 2005 season includes a Veterans' Day Concert in Houston in November and a trip to Germany.

For more information, call 202-797-0700, send e-mail (vanmmg@hotmail.com) or visit the group's Web site (www.medicalmusical.com).

Liability crisis drives out Pa. medical residents

A recent study shows many medical residents in Pennsylvania are leaving the state when their training is finished, due to the high cost of medical liability insurance.

The survey of medical residents and program directors in high-risk specialties showed that one-third of residents in their final years of training planned to leave the state because of medical liability insurance costs. Some 71% of residency program directors reported a decrease in retention of residents coinciding with rising insurance costs.

The survey of residents and program directors in anesthesiology, general surgery, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, and radiology was conducted in 2003, with 68 program directors and 360 residents participating.

From 2000 to 2003, ob-gyns reported their annual premiums rose from $69,000 to $134,000. The survey was published in the June Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Two W.Va. liability insurers ask to cut rates

West Virginia Physicians' Mutual Insurance Co. and Woodbrook Casualty Insurance Co. have both asked the state's insurance commissioner to lower their liability insurance rates for 2006.

West Virginia Physicians' Mutual, which insures more than 1,600 doctors in the state, requested a 5% reduction across all specialties, with rates effective Jan. 1, 2006. Company president David Rader said declines in severity and frequency of claims has led the company to lower its rates.

Woodbrook Casualty, a subsidiary of Birmingham, Ala.-based ProAssurance Corp., requested a 3.9% decrease in premiums, although the rate cut is not consistent across all specialties, ProAssurance spokesman Frank O'Neil said.

The company also will no longer offer a 5% premium credit to members of the West Virginia State Medical Assn., O'Neil said.

New center opens to fight health disparities

Massachusetts General Hospital has launched a national center dedicated to developing policies and changing the delivery of care to help eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

Hospital officials said the Disparities Solutions Center has the potential to change the way minorities receive medical care locally, regionally and nationally. The center will serve as a resource for hospitals, health insurers, physicians, community health centers, health profession schools, consumer organizations and state and local governments.

The hospital and Partners HealthCare have committed $3 million in initial funding for the center, which has started working with the Boston Public Health Commission, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts and the state of Delaware.

Pa. court strikes down law restricting liability claims in civil suits

A Pennsylvania court in July struck down a law that restricted liability in civil cases, opening the door for the return of "joint and several liability" in the state.

The commonwealth court ruling said the law was invalid because it was attached to an unrelated bill providing for DNA testing of sex offenders.

Joint and several liability is a measure that says when more than one party is found negligent in a civil case, any of the parties can be forced to pay the entire award. The recently struck law said defendants could not be held responsible for more than their share of the blame in the case.

Chuck Moran, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Medical Society, said the society expects legislators to reintroduce the law in a different form soon.

"We're always concerned when you see good tort reforms tossed out," Moran said. "But it was on more of a technicality."

MSMS predicts Michigan physician shortfall

The Michigan State Medical Society expects the state will be short 6,000 physicians by 2020 as it realizes a modest increase in population alongside an even larger increase in the number of residents 65 and older.

The society sought the state work force analysis in response to national forecasts for a physician shortage of anywhere from 85,000 to 200,000 by 2020. An outside company conducted the analysis. Currently the state has 30,000 practicing physicians, with one third of them in primary care.

The Michigan physician work force study is available online, in pdf format msms.org/bsyp/news/physicianshortagefull.pdf.

The American Medical Association supports the concept that a physician shortage is at hand, but it qualifies its stance by stating that shortages are limited to certain specialties and regions.

Dr. Palmisano earns patient safety award

The nation's leading doctor-owned medical liability insurer recognized AMA Past President Donald J. Palmisano, MD, for his successful advocacy of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005, which President Bush signed into law last July.

Napa, Calif.-based Doctors Company gave Dr. Palmisano its Award for the Advancement in Patient Safety. The new patient-safety law allows physicians, hospitals and other health care professionals to voluntarily and confidentially share information about medical errors in an attempt to understand and change the systemic factors that can lead to such errors.

Dr. Palmisano was AMA president for the 2003-04 term and serves on the National Patient Safety Foundation's board of directors.