side note: This is our annual write-up of all that happened at this year’s Medical Professional Liability Industry’s largest conference. What happens here drives changes to the medical malpractice insurance environment over the next 365 days. The Annual Conference of the Medical Professional Liability (MPL) Association took place at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, […]

In March of this year, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bipartisan update to the state’s Medical Malpractice Act just days before the end of the 2023 session. This move prevented a potential medical liability insurance crisis. Senate Bill 523, a compromise between trial lawyers and healthcare professionals, establishes a $1 million cap on medical […]

The Alaska Supreme Court overturned a long-standing law that limited damage awards for medical malpractice cases where claimants had received compensation from a collateral source, such as a health insurer. This landmark ruling, which challenges the fairness of double deduction rules in malpractice cases, has significant implications for healthcare providers and claimants alike. Here’s our […]

Stakeholders in the decades-long battle over California’s noneconomic damages cap for medical liability jury verdicts announced they have reached a compromise between healthcare, legal and consumer advocates on legislation to modernize the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). Signed into law in 1975, MICRA established a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice awards for things like […]

New research from the Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI), a nonprofit physician advocacy organization, in conjunction with the healthcare consultancy Avalere Health, indicates almost three quarters (73.9%) of all U.S. physicians were employed by a hospital, health system or other corporate entity as of Jan. 1, 2022,  up from 69% at the same point last year. […]

AM Best maintained its negative outlook for the U.S. medical professional liability (MPL) insurance segment in 2022. In a Market Segment Outlook published recently, the global credit ratings agency cited the ongoing pressures of a depressed demand, rising loss cost trends, an increase in high-severity claims, social inflation and diminishing reserve redundancies as justification for continued […]

The 2022 Q3 #1 State Update can be found here. Missouri Considers Shrinking its Personal Injury Statute of Limitations Legislators in both chambers of the Missouri General Assembly are currently debating bills to shrink the state’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims from five to two years. Only Maine and South Dakota have longer […]

A growing number of state medical boards have been pushing back against the minority of healthcare professionals spreading dangerous COVID-19 disinformation and prescribing unproven coronavirus treatments. They are increasingly meeting resistance from conservative lawmakers. “Physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation are risking disciplinary action by state medical boards, including the suspension […]

Iowa House Advances Bill with Hard Noneconomic Damage Cap The Labor Committee of the Iowa House of Representatives advanced legislation recently intended to combat the state’s worker shortage by reforming unemployment and tort laws. The bill is divided into two sections: one relates to unemployment insurance and the other would create a $1 million hard […]