Doctors' insurance rates will not go up in Illinois; fewer malpractice claims credited
BY MIKE FITZGERALD
News-Democrat
For the second year in a row, Illinois' largest insurer of physicians has announced its base premium rates will not go up -- the result, many say, of the state's stabilized legal environment brought by a medical malpractice law in 2005 that capped awards for "pain and suffering."
ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co., of Chicago, announced it would not raise the base rates because of a decrease in claim frequency, as well as drops in payouts for verdicts and out-of-court settlements.
Shastri Swaminathan, the president of the Illinois State Medical Society, said the stabilization of rates shows two positive trends: that the number of frivolous lawsuits is declining, and the size of awards in such cases is shrinking.
"So I think the award experience and climate is getting better," said Swaminathan, a psychiatrist who practices in downtown Chicago.
The extension of ISMIE's current base rates affects annual policies renewing on or after Oct. 1.
The 2005 tort reform law has been credited with luring back many physicians who had left the metro-east because of high malpractice insurance premiums. But it's unclear how long the state law will stand after a Cook County judge in November threw it out, ruling the law violates victims' rights.
An appeal of the judge's decision is pending before the Illinois Supreme Court.
If the lawsuit is invalidated, then the gains of the past two years could be lost, said Swaminathan and Dr. Brad Ringhofer, president of the St. Clair County Medical Society.
"Then we'd be back to Square Zero," Swaminathan said.
Contact reporter Mike Fitzgerald at mfitzgerald@bnd.com or 239-2533.