Yes, you read the title correctly! Doctors have long complained large malpractice lawsuits contribute to climbing insurance rates and rising medical costs. I represent the victims of medical negligence and hear from doctors all the time that my cases are driving their malpractice premiums so high that some doctors are stopping the practice of medicine. First, I do not know of any Virginia doctor who stopped practicing medicine as a result of medical malpractice suits – unless the State Board of Medicine took his/her license away. Second, why don’t doctors take a closer look at their insurance company’s role in the problem? Trial lawyers in North Carolina are doing just that.
The North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers is pushing for an investigation into the rates charged by Medical Mutual Insurance Co. of North Carolina. State law bars medical malpractice insurers from charging excessive rates. The company’s rates have “crossed the legal threshold,” said Dick Taylor, chief executive officer of the trial lawyers’ academy. The group on Tuesday asked state Insurance Commissioner Jim Long to investigate.