The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPAC) maypose a catch-22 to medical professionals hoping to protectthemselves against liability lawsuits, according to panelists at arecent Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) seminar.

The law, which will provide 32 million Americans withaccess to healthcare in 2014, will pose new challenges to medicaland insurance providers as newly insured patients flood a changinghealth-care delivery system.

“Health care coverage offers no guarantee that someone will haveaccess to health care,” said Kevin Bingham, an Associate of the CASand principal at Deloitte, at the seminar in whichmembers discussed that more insured patients wouldn't necessarilylead to less emergency-room visits.

While 78 percent of doctors in the late 1970's had their ownprivate practice or shared one with another doctor, Bingham argued,while that number has dropped to 30 percent in 2013 as reducedservice reimbursement payments by health insurers make shuttering apractice to work for a hospital more appealing.

“There may be fewer doctors to care for a greater number ofpatients,” said Brian Ingle, a CAS fellow and executive vicepresident at Willis Re.

This causes reduced quality of care, which may lead to morelawsuits against doctors and overworked nurses and assistants.Although medical professional liability (MPL) policies now protectdoctors against lawsuits that allege doctor negligence or errorsand omission that could harm a patient, a drop in privatepractices, combined with the fact that half of all hospitalsself-insure MPL, can impact rates for those who stick by theirbusinesses, the panelists said.

Another contradiction is that as more healthcare practitionersof all sizes begin to rely more on data and IT to record patientlab results, vitals, and progress notes to use in the case theyhave to defend themselves in a malpractice lawsuits, cyberexposures also increase: for example, a lost laptop containingelectronic medical records (EMR) may cost insurers up to$60,000.

Ultimately, however, providing old-fashioned quality care may dothe most to prevent insurance complications for doctors.

“A lot of medical malpractice claims go away if there's goodcustomer service,” Bingham stated.