Pa. Med Mal Insurers Lost $18M In '02
By Michael Ha
NU Online News Service, July 22, 9:39 p.m. EDT?A new analysis reveals that medical malpractice insurers in Pennsylvania lost $18 million in aggregate during 2002, according to a state insurance department spokesperson.
Melissa Fox, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, said the figure, released last week, was based on a cash-flow analysis of insurance companies in her state.
The loss figure is an improvement compared to 2001, when medical malpractice insurers lost $35 million in total, but higher than the 2000 number of $3 million in aggregate loss, Ms. Fox pointed out.
But the $18 million loss figure for last year excludes the $209 million in reserves that insurers announced in 2002, and last year was the fourth year in a row that medical malpractice insurers in Pennsylvania posted aggregate loss, Ms. Fox said.
Commenting further on her state's medical liability environment, she also noted there are currently around 70 to 80 licensed insurers that are renewing their medical malpractice policies in Pennsylvania, but among them, only two companies are underwriting any new policies.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.