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SIIA Salutes Medical Malpractice Exclusion from House Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 22, 2010 – The Self-Insurance Institute of America, Inc. (SIIA) today saluted the exclusion of medical malpractice insurance from a Congressional bill that would eliminate portions of the McCarran-Ferguson Act in governing the insurance industry.
“This decision by Congress will preserve the existing ability of self-insured risk retention groups to provide medical liability insurance to their members,” said Kevin Doherty, chair of SIIA’s Alternative Risk Transfer Committee. Doherty observed that SIIA and other insurance interests joined to ask sponsors of the House bill for the exclusion of medical malpractice insurance from the new law.
The House bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) as the “Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act,” would prohibit the sharing by health insurers of statistical trend analyses of historical loss cost data that is used by underwriters to determine the most efficient and low-cost insurance premiums. The bill reportedly included both health insurers and medical malpractice insurers in a draft version, which could have been particularly damaging to the formation of risk retention groups organized to cover medical liability risks.
When risk retention groups were enabled by the federal Liability Risk Retention Act of 1986, groups comprised of hospitals, physicians and other medical specialties formed their own insurance companies against the risk of malpractice lawsuits. “These risk retention groups helped to provide insurance solutions for health care providers and reduced the impact of the malpractice crisis that had begun to cripple healthcare in many states,” Doherty said.
Doherty stated that formation of medical liability risk retention groups would be extremely difficult if they were included in the new law. “Loss cost data is the tool they need to be competitive and provide meaningful solutions to healthcare providers to help manage medical practice liability claims,” he said.
SIIA is a national trade association that represents companies involved in the self-insurance/ alternative risk transfer industry. Additional information about the association can be accessed on-line at www.siia.org, or by calling 800/851-7789. ### |
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