West Virginia Medical Malpractice Insurance

• Most Common Limits of Liability: $1 million/$3 million
• Major Malpractice Insurers:
  • West Virginia Mutual Ins. Co.
  • Medicus Insurance Co.
  • Community Hospital Alternative
  • Endurance American Specialty Ins. Co.
  • Healthcare Industry Liability Reciprocal
• Cost of Medical Malpractice Insurance: High

West Virginia has an expensive medical malpractice marketplace for physicians. Though premiums do not approach the high rates in states like New York and Illinois, West Virginia physicians still pay more than physicians in many surrounding states. West Virginia has made several reforms to its medical liability system, but the problem of high premiums has persisted in the state. Perhaps this is due, in part, to the Mountain State’s abysmal tort law system. According to the Institute for Legal Reform’s 2015 report Ranking the States: A Survey of the Fairness and Reasonableness of State Liability Systems, West Virginia ranked dead last overall, as well as on overall treatment of tort and contract legislation, discovery and scientific and technical evidence. The state ranked 49^th on having and enforcing meaningful venue requirements, timeliness of summary judgment or dismissal, judges’ impartiality and judges’ competence. The Institute for Legal Reform is an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

West Virginia has implemented many reforms to its medical liability system, beginning with the Medical Professional Liability Act of 1986, which had the objective of providing “adequate and reasonable compensation to those persons who suffer from injury or death as a result of medical negligence,” while balancing “the cost of liability insurance coverage… and retaining qualified physicians and other healthcare providers.” The legislation capped noneconomic damages at $1 million, limited joint and several liability, established minimum expert requirements and provided procedural safeguards.

In 2001, legislation was passed requiring a Certificate of Merit to be filed before a medical malpractice case could proceed. And, in 2003, several more reform measures were passed, including a provision to allow healthcare workers to write-off 21 percent of their adjusted medical malpractice insurance premium on their taxes. The 2003 legislation also created the West Virginia Physicians Mutual Insurance Company (WVPMIC), the only non-profit mutual medical liability insurance company in West Virginia. It was started with a $24 million loan from West Virginia taxpayers and currently insures about 70 percent of the state’s healthcare workforce. The West Virginia General Assembly also made changes to the state’s noneconomic damage cap, reducing the amount recoverable to $250,000 for most cases and $500,000 if the injury involved death, permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb or bodily organ system or permanent physical or mental injury preventing an individual from independently caring for himself or performing life sustaining activities. The damage cap was challenged in 2011, but was upheld by the West Virginia Supreme Court.

• Damage Caps? Yes, $250,000 noneconomic damages cap; $500,000 if the injury involved death or certain types of permanent injury.
• Patient Compensation Fund? No
• Apology Law? Yes, any statement, affirmation, gesture or conduct of a healthcare provider who provided healthcare services to a patient, expressing apology, sympathy, commiseration, condolence, compassion or a general sense of benevolence in any civil action, including arbitration, mediation or alternative dispute resolution proceeding, made to a patient, relative of the patient or legal representative of the patient in regards to discomfort, pain, suffering, injury or death of the patient will be inadmissible.
• Collateral Source Reform? Yes, defendants may introduce evidence of collateral sources of payment, and plaintiffs can introduce evidence of payments made to secure those benefits. The court is required to reduce the award by the amount the plaintiff received from collateral sources, not including any payments made to secure the benefits.
• Periodic Payments? No
• Joint Liability Reform? Yes, defendants are responsible only for their portion of fault.
• Limits on Plaintiff Attorney’s Fees? No

Overview

Medical malpractice rates in West Virginia are moderately high. The state is more expensive than many of its neighbors, but rates are generally less than in the most expensive markets. West Virginia rates have stabilized and, in recent years, have either held steady or decreased.

Get Historic Rates

By combining our efforts with those of the Medical Liability Monitor – the nation’s leading independent source of Medical Liability Insurance news, as well as the political, legal and risk management issues that affect the healthcare industry – we’ve published historic rate data for every county in the Mountain State. You can view all the rates by completing the three simple steps on the left of this page. You’ll find the insights offered by this information invaluable when making your decision on your medical malpractice insurance coverage and carriers. This is only one of the many reasons that Cunningham Group Insurance has become the preferred online source for West Virginia physicians, healthcare professionals and medical groups looking to find the best coverage and lower their medical malpractice insurance rates.

Coverage by West Virginia County

Rates are the same across the 55 counties of West Virginia. Rates in more populous counties like Kanawha (population 193,063) and Berkeley (population 104,169) are the same as those in less populated parts of the state.

West Virginia State Medical Association
West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner
West Virginia Board of Medicine
West Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association
West Virginia Medical Group Management Association
West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services
All MD West Virginia Healthcare Defense Attorney Listing