California physicians are understandably concerned about obtaining and keeping affordable professional liability insurance. Medical malpractice insurance costs have risen dramatically over the past several years, particularly in states that do not have the benefit of a professional liability reform statute (such as California’s MICRA) that limits pain and suffering awards and attorneys fees.

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For More Information Take CMA's 2003 Professional Liability Insurance Survey [ONLINE] [PDF]

Thanks to MICRA’s protections, California physicians have faired better than most states. Last year, for example, Los Angeles and Orange County physicians insured by a carrier that writes coverage in multiple states saved an average of more than $40,000 per physician compared to their colleagues in Florida, New York, or Mississippi.

Still, CMA is getting an increasing number of calls from physicians who have been notified of large increases in professional liability insurance premiums and from others who have been dropped by their carriers. In some cases, the physicians say they have had no settlements or suits filed against them. Although California physicians, thanks to MICRA, have so far been spared the widespread premium-rate escalation that physicians in many other states are facing, CMA needs to determine the extent of the problem being faced by California physicians. To do so, we need your help.

So that we can gather objective information on the extent of premium increases by region and specialty,and in the interest of countering the potential for misinformation in these regards, CMA respectfully asks for your response to CMA's 2003 Professional Liability Insurance Survey.

CMA will use the data to assess the problem and advocate for fair and stable insurance rates for physicians. CMA will be working closely with our physician-owned carrier colleagues to get objective information about 2003 rate issues and figure out how to mitigate future increases

All survey responses will be kept confidential and will be reported in the aggregate only. To limit the length of the survey , we have not included any demographic questions. It is important, therefore, that you fill out the contact information in your survey response, which will allow computerized retrieval of your CMA member profile and development of meaningful data.

To complete the survey online, click here. To download a typeset PDF version of this survey that can be printed out and submitted by fax, click here.

Contact: CMA's legal information specialists, 415/882-5144 or legalinfo@cmanet.org.