Doctor's Company medical malpractice rates rise

The Nevada Insurance Commission has given The Doctors' Co. permission to increase medical malpractice rates by 16.7 percent statewide.

The company provides malpractice insurance for about 840 physicians, 400 of them working at the University of Nevada Medical School and most of those at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Another 373 of the company's customers are Clark County physicians.

Only about 68 Doctors' Co. physicians are located in the rest of the state.

Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman said numerous reductions were made from the original rate request. Applications for 49 percent rate hikes for surgical specialists and 45 percent for diagnostic radiology were cut to 35 percent for the areas outside Clark County. Those in those specialties in Clark will get 14.4 percent hikes but their rates were higher than the rest of the state.

The largest increases approved were for those specialists doing liposuction -- 25 percent.

One of the changes approved was to reduce the break given to doctors who don't have any malpractice claims against them from 15 percent to 12.5 percent. Group discounts for physicians were also decreased by the same amount.

The approval reduces the rate Northern Nevada physicians must pay for "tail" coverage -- insurance against new lawsuits for alleged malpractice several years in the past. Insurance officials say that should offset some of the increases for northern and rural physicians.