Courses in Risk Management 101 could win Illinois physicians a break on their medical malpractice premiums under a new program being rolled out by the state’s largest carrier of such policies.
ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co., which provides coverage for about 14,000 physicians in Illinois, has for the first time launched an effort to educate doctors about heading off potential risks for liability as well as ways to defend themselves against lawsuits.
While ISMIE has always helped doctors fight lawsuits and assist physicians once their battles reach the courts, the company says it now wants to be proactive as well and hopefully avoid legal actions altogether.
“We’re going to try to educate every doctor in the country on trigger points that produce suits,” said Dr. Harold Jensen, a Frankfort internist and chairman of ISMIE. “The hope is to reduce the number of suits and the size of the verdicts. There are trigger points.”
Although trial lawyers and doctors debate the reasons behind soaring malpractice premiums, physicians view the frequency of lawsuits and the size of jury verdicts as the primary driver behind rising insurance costs. Therefore, ISMIE says it wants to provide doctors with the necessary tools to defend themselves in court or, hopefully, to avoid the legal system altogether.
Risk management consultants say education on risk can also help doctors avoid medical errors and misdiagnoses, which trial lawyers and some consumer advocates blame for rising premiums.
Under ISMIE’s program, physicians can win discounts on their policies that range from 15 percent to 30 percent annually, depending on how many courses they take. Those would be significant discounts for ISMIE, which increased premiums an average of 35 percent this year and will raise them another 7.4 percent in July when the next policy year begins.
Jensen said educational courses will cover issues such as proper documentation and verification of patient information and various record-keeping practices.
Physicians can also get credits for attending presentations by speakers or agreeing to abide by an ISMIE risk assessment of the doctor’s office.
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ISMIE is hoping the program will help the insurer keep a lid on rates and eventually improve the company’s overall financial health. ISMIE last year had to stop accepting new business in order to maintain adequate surpluses.
ISMIE has avoided the fate of many other carriers that have gone out of business due to larger compensatory settlements, overall health-care inflation and a stock market that turned sour and threatened insurers’ surpluses.
“The current liability climate is devastating our health-care system,” Jensen said. “We’ve got a problem,” he said, “and because the company is owned by the policyholders, they have a problem, too.”