By Janelle Henderson
In 1961, Dr. Benjamin Rigor paid $4,000 a year for medical malpractice insurance. Four decades later, Rigor, professor and chairman of anesthesiology in the School of Medicine, pays $50,000 annually. With malpractice insurance rates increasing every year and no limitations imposed by the Department of Insurance, physicians like Rigor are left wondering when relief will come.
Rigor believes the annual increases diminishes the number of physicians practicing in Kentucky due to the high cost and risk of being sued for high-risk specialties, including neurosurgery, obstetrics, gynecology, and emergency medicine.
“It affects them because their practice is limited to less risky procedures,” Rigor said. “Some retire early because they can’t afford the premiums or don’t think it’s worth it.”
Rigor added that some physicians join the federal government because although the pay is less to serve as a military physician in the Veteran’s Association, Navy or Army, “you can’t get sued.”
Marty White, director of public and governmental relations for the Kentucky Medical Association, agreed that the cost of medical malpractice suits indirectly affects patients by limiting the practice of Kentucky physicians.
“The extreme cost of defending frivolous lawsuits and lottery-like jackpot awards raises physicians’ liability insurance costs and forces them to make tough decisions about whether they can continue practicing in Kentucky, which ultimately affects patients’ access to care,” White said.
Additionally, a study performed by the Kentucky Medical Association Physician Workforce Committee from January 2000 to December 2002 found that 1,273 practicing physicians left the state to practice in lower risk states, like Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio. Out of the physicians who had already left Kentucky, those performing high-risk specialties were most likely to leave the state because of high premiums.
For the past three years, the General Assembly has worked to reform the state’s current medical liability programs through Senate Bill 1, a bill proposing to amend the state constitution by adding a section permitting the General Assembly to limit non-economic and punitive damages. White is certain the bill will be back again in the next session.
Although Rigor and White believe Kentucky is in a state of crisis, attorney William F. McMurry of William McMurry & Associates feels the real crisis is in the high volume of inaccurate information.
“Contrary to popular belief, the number of medical malpractice suits that go to trial is very rare,” McMurry said. McMurry is the only lawyer in the state accredited as a medical malpractice trial specialist by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys.
He said only three cases were tried in Kentucky in 2003 and of the two tried in Kentucky in 2002, only one of them was from Jefferson County.
White agreed with McMurry, and said the average number of 320 malpractice suits filed from 1998-2003, over half were deemed “non-meritous” because they lacked credibility.
Legislative efforts to grant a cap on malpractice awards won’t solve the rising premium rates, McMurry said, using Ohio and Indiana as examples. Although both states have an award cap of $250,000, both states have seen increased premium rates, with Ohio’s average rates for obstetricians rising from $60,000 in 2000 to $145,000 in 2005.
An even bigger problem McMurry finds with medical malpractice cases is that justice is rarely served for patients.
“Patients stand a 90 percent chance of losing, even when doctors admit their fault or stand clearly at fault,” McMurry said. He faults juries for the doctors’ wins.
“Juries don’t want to go home at night and believe such a terrible thing could happen to them,” McMurry said. “It’s easier to believe the doctor was right.”
For Rigor, moving to another state is out of the question. He works the first three months of every year to pay his malpractice insurance and deals with the frivolous malpractice cases filed against him, knowing that this is a part of his job he must deal with.
“The high levels of medical malpractice suits has nothing to do with the practice of medicine and nothing with the practice of law — it’s just business,” Rigor said.
