Soaring misconduct insurance payments are forcing doctors to scale back their practices, give up wor

On the North Shore, an obstetrician-gynecologist OB-GYN who has to pay $118,000 in Florida attorney malpractice liability indemnity the followingyear is studying to obtain a pharmacist license.
"I never thought about doing anything else," said the 43-year-old surgeon, who preferred to remain anonymous. "Now all I'm thinking about is what else can I do."

In the twelve month time {coming to a close|ending last July, accountability insurance premiums throughout the nation grew by 24.70% for internists, 25 percent for general surgeons and 19.60% for obstetrician-gynecologists, the Medical Liability Monitor reports.

In Chicago, once a year premiums total about thirty two thousand dollars for internists, seventy six thousand dollars for general surgeons and $110,000 for OB-GYNs. By comparison, physicians’ average take home salary, after insurance and other expenditures, was one hundred and sixty thousand dollars in 1999, the American Medical Association said. One Florida attorney malpractice cause why costs are so astronomical for obstetrician-gynecologists is that doctors are taken to court after complicated births leave babies with permanent disabilities.

There is anecdotal evidence that insurance premiums are varying the way surgeons practice.
Brain surgeons, for instance, may do less brain surgery. According to a study of 700 neurologists by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, 43 percent said they are planning to or are considering confining their practice to get reprieve from Florida attorney malpractice responsibility premiums as high as three hundred thousand dollars.

Premiums differ extensively. General surgeons, for instance, pay sixty six thousand dollars per year in Long Island, N.Y., and One hundred and seventy thousand dollars in Miami. In Las Vegas, upwards of than seventy five obstetrician-gynecologists have moved or think of moving to lower-cost cities. And in West Virginia, a shortage of orthopedic surgeons who can afford liability insurance has left the state with only a lone Level I trauma hospital to take of the most seriously injured patients, the AMA's American Medical News reports.

obstetrician-gynecologists blame "frivolous" unprofessional conduct claims and "jackpot" jury settlements. "The dollars that go to pay for legal defense and plaintiffs' attorneys ultimately come from patients," said Dr. John Schneider, president of the Illinois State Medical Society.

But in the previous 30 years, jury verdicts and settlements have gone up no faster than health care costs,as discovered by the Americans for Insurance Reform.

At present this year, there have been two hundred and eleven misconduct verdicts in Illinois, with an average award of $1.9 million, as reported by the Jury Verdict Reporter.

Some experts said the insurance commerce and the financial system are more to blame than trial lawyers and juries. Insurance firms mint money by investing premiums in stocks, bonds and other investments. To offset the recent drops in stock prices and interest rates, insurance firms are enhancing premiums. A parallel situation arose in the mid-'70s and mid-'80s.

The House has ratified a bill that would curb unprofessional conduct verdicts to economic costs such as lost wages and a maximum of $250,000 for pain and suffering. But the bill is not expected to be adopted by the Senate.

Florida Legal Malpractice Lawyer Gil Fendes writes exclusively on the Law, Legal issue having to do with the West Palm Beach Florida area.