N.Y. Regulator Says Action On Med Mal Rates Linked To Senate

NU Online News Service, July 8, 2:25 p.m. EDT

New York's top insurance regulator announced he will delay setting new medical malpractice insurance rates, unchanged since 2007, until the state Senate political stalemate ends.

Acting New York State Insurance Superintendent Kermitt Brooks said in a statement he will hold off action to allow time for the Senate to respond to the Assembly's approval of an extension of the freeze on medical malpractice rates.

The Senate, with 31 Republicans and 31 Democrats, has been deadlocked in a dispute over its leadership. Normally the lieutenant governor would cast a vote to break a tie, but the post has been vacant since David Paterson moved into the governorship vacated by Eliot Spitzer.

In 2007 Mr. Brooks' predecessor, Eric Dinallo, who recently resigned, approved a 14 percent increase for medical malpractice insurance rates, which he said was necessary "to avoid further financial deterioration of the companies and perhaps an irreversible crisis in an already severely distressed market."

According to the department, as of March 31, 2007 MMIP accumulated a deficit of approximately $525 million–"a sum that, by law, must be shouldered by the few companies selling malpractice insurance in the state, exerting further pressure on insurance rates."

Mr. Brooks said when rates for 2009-2010 are determined, they will be retroactive to July 1. The freeze on rates was set by the legislature last year.

A spokesperson for the department said that pending rate requests are not made public. Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company is the state's largest private insurer and the insurer of last resort is the Medical Malpractice Insurance Pool.