Medical Liability Monitor Annual Rate Survey Indicates First Medical Malpractice Premium Rates Increase in Eight Years
Chicago, Ill. (PRWEB) October 09, 2015 -- According to just-released data from the 2015 Medical Liability Monitor Annual Rate Survey, the medical professional liability (medical malpractice) insurance industry’s premiums experienced a slight (0.3 percent) increase, but the financial pressure necessary to harden the market remains absent.. Nationwide, internal medicine physicians saw an average rate increase of 0.6 percent, while general surgeons had a 0.2-percent average rate decrease and OB/Gyns saw their increase by an average of 0.5 percent. In other words, the market remains flat.
“While not materially different than last year’s 1.5-percent average decrease, 2015’s 0.3-percent increase is significant because it’s the first time in almost a decade that there has been any increase in average rates,” said Michael Matray, editor of the Medical Liability Monitor. “While it is significant, no one should consider the average rate increase an indicator of a hardening market. With a reserve redundancy estimated at $3.4 billion, the medical professional liability insurance market is expected to remain soft or flat for at least another three years—if not more.”
According to this year’s Annual Rate Survey data, a majority of rates did not change—up or down—compared to 2014. Seventy-one percent of all manual rates stayed the same, a 6-point increase from the percentage that did not budge last year. For the eleventh-straight year, most increases were in the 0.1- to 9.9-percent range. Five-and-a-half percent of rates increased in the 10 to 24.9 percent increase range, significantly higher than 2014’s 0.1-percent rise for this range. There was a slight 0.2-percent jump in rate increases of 10- to 24.9-percent.
On a regional basis, rate increases dominated in the South, while the Northeast, West and Midwest continued to show average rate decreases. The Midwest showed the largest rate decrease with an 8-percent decline. Western states experienced a 0.2-percent average rate decrease, noticeably less than last year’s 4.1-percent drop. Rates in the Northeast showed only a 0.1-percent decrease on average, and there were no rate changes in New York and Connecticut.
Complete Annual Rate Survey available to the press upon request.
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Since 1991, Medical Liability Monitor—an independent, industry newsletter—has been surveying the leading providers of medical professional liability insurance (MPLI) for its Annual Rate Survey report. This year’s survey reports rates from more than 40 companies that represent as much as 75 percent of the physicians malpractice insurance market. It is the most comprehensive report on MPLI premium rates available.
Medical Liability Monitor is the only independent publication reporting exclusively on the medical professional liability insurance and risk management industries. The monthly newsletter, founded in 1975, has conducted the Annual Rate Survey since 1991. To order the Annual Rate Survey or to subscribe to the monthly newsletter, visit http://www.medicalliabilitymonitor.com or call 312-944-7900.
Mike Matray, Medical Liability Monitor, http://www.medicalliabilitymonitor.com, +1 (312) 944-7900, [email protected]
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