Fifteen states reported double-digit percentages of increased medical liability premiums in 2022 — up from 12 states in 2021 — an American Medical Association data analysis revealed.
The AMA said tort reform stabilized the medical liability insurance market in the early 2000s, but many of those reforms have since been overturned in many states, leading to increases in the past four years.
With regard to insurance premium increases, geography makes a difference, according to the April 19 AMA report, which cited an example of disproportionate premiums. In 2022, some Los Angeles OB-GYNs had to pay $49,804 for liability coverage, while their colleagues in Miami-Dade County in South Florida shelled out $226,224 for similar coverage.
Timing of the increases, with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, is a coincidence, the AMA said, noting the "effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the medical professional liability market has been largely inconsequential." Any future premium increases are not expected to be affected by future COVID-19-related claims.
The AMA supports any initiatives that will stabilize premiums and allow physicians to "meet the needs of millions of Americans who need affordable, accessible medical care," Jack Resneck Jr., MD, AMA president, said in a news release.
Illinois tops the list — for the second year in a row — of the 15 states with the largest percentage of increased premiums of 10 percent or more in 2022.
- Illinois: 63.6 percent
- New Mexico: 33.3 percent
- Oregon: 26.7 percent
- Kansas: 20 percent
- South Dakota: 20 percent
- Kentucky: 20 percent
- Massachusetts: 16.7 percent
- Montana: 16.7 percent
- Missouri: 14.8 percent
- South Carolina: 11.1 percent
- West Virginia: 6.7 percent
- Maine: 6.7 percent
- Virginia: 6.4 percent
- Nevada: 5.6 percent
- Georgia: 4.8 percent