Liability insurance rates mostly hold steady or drop this year

AMA president says rates are still "obscene." Insurers aren't optimistic the stabilization will continue.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. Dec. 11, 2006.

Medical liability insurers reported that nearly 70% of their premium rates have leveled off or decreased in some areas, almost double the 35% reported in 2005, according to results from the annual Medical Liability Monitor survey that details how much insurers charge doctors.

But the improvement offers no high ground for doctors who, after a flood of rising premiums over the last five years, are seeing rates anchor at or near record-high levels.

For example, some Florida internists, general surgeons and ob-gyns saw the largest rate decreases in the country -- about 50%. But some of those Florida doctors also paid the nation's highest premiums in their specialty, with some general surgeons and ob-gyns in Dade County paying $299,420 in 2006, the survey showed.

"There's no question there may be some stabilization, but it's at an obscene rate," said AMA President William G. Plested III, MD. "That's only half the story, and it doesn't approach this awful medical liability system that is costing patients and physicians."

The Monitor survey asked firms to report their manual rates for mature claims-made policies with limits of $1 million/$3 million as of July 1 for three specialties.

Of the 837 rates reported, 47% did not change in 2006, nearly double the 24% reported last year. Another 23% of rates were cut, more than double the number in 2005.

But doctors and insurers say early signs of a better market for physicians could be short-lived.