May 4, 2023 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the April 2023 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in entirety, please subscribe today.

New Hampshire Attorney General’s Report on State Medical Board Calls for Greater Transparency, Legislature Considers Public Advocate
A new report published by the attorney general of New Hampshire calls on the state’s board of medicine to implement reforms that would provide the public with more information about potentially unsafe doctors. The attorney general’s office has recommended posting malpractice complaints and settlements, as well as publicly posting the names of physicians who receive “letters of concern,” which are currently kept confidential …

AM Best Maintains Negative Outlook for Medical Professional Liability Segment
AM Best is maintaining its negative outlook for the medical professional liability segment of insurance in 2023. According to the credit rating service’s Market Segment Outlook, published on March 31, the drivers behind the industry’s negative outlook include rising claim severity, social inflation, the potential for indirect pandemic-related claims, the ongoing pressures of a depressed demand in the physician market and diminishing reserve redundancies …

AMA Analysis of Medical Liability Monitor Annual Rate Survey Data Notes Rate Increases Unseen in Two Decades
A protracted period of upward volatility in medical liability premiums has extended into a fourth consecutive year and suggests a hard insurance market has spread across many states, making it difficult for physicians to find affordable coverage, according to a new Policy Research Perspectives report in which the American Medical Association (AMA) analyzed Medical Liability Monitor’s 2022 Annual Rate Survey data. The prevalence of year-to-year increases in medical liability premiums between 2019 and 2022 has not been observed in two decades …

Colorado Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Damage Cap Challenge
The Colorado Supreme Court agreed last month to hear an appeal over whether a more than $9 million medical liability jury verdict against two physicians and Sky Ridge Medical Center should be reduced to $1 million, in-line with the medical liability damage cap parameters of the state’s Health Care Availability Act ...

HHS Proposes Bolstering Confidentiality Around Reproductive Care
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), through its Office for Civil Rights, issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) last month to strengthen Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule protections by prohibiting the use or disclosure of protected health information to investigate or prosecute patients, providers and others involved in the provision of legal reproductive healthcare, including abortion care. According to HHS, it has heard from patients, providers and organizations representing thousands of individuals that this change is needed to protect patient-provider confidentiality and prevent private medical records from being used against people for seeking, obtaining, providing or facilitating lawful reproductive healthcare …

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