Decline in med mal litigation among factors contributing to NY insurance market volatility, P.1

Medical malpractice liability is an important factor for physicians in every area of medical care. The costs associated with malpractice liability can be significant, because the costs of medical negligence are often so great for injured patients.

Each state has a slightly different landscape when it comes to malpractice liability. In New York’s current system, there are five medical malpractice carriers, each of which is required to pay into a guaranty fund serving as a safety net in the event one of the insurer’s fails. Out-of-state carriers are not bound by the same requirement, and can thus charge less for coverage. In-state providers are having a hard time competing with the low rates of out-of-state providers, and this isn’t really a benefit to patients.

There are undoubtedly many factors affecting the current medical malpractice market in New York, and there isn’t necessarily a whole lot individual patients can do about it. Perhaps lawmakers and state regulators will come up with a solution to the problem, though it isn’t clear exactly what they would do to address it. One of the factors is that a significant number of insurance providers have come into the New York market in recent years because of a variety of factors. Because federal law exempts out-of-state providers from the state’s regulatory requirements, instability has resulted.

The ongoing volatilities in the medical malpractice market could result in physicians facing increased exposure to medical malpractice liability and where tort victims may not be able to receive adequate compensation when a negligent provider becomes insolvent. Not to mention the fact that the situation could result in increased health care costs for everybody.

One of the factors is that the number of medical malpractice claims in New York has actually decreased over the last decade. We’ll look at this issue in our next post.