Recent Events in the News

Expensive malpractice for OB-GYNs

Posted on Feb 08, 2008

Expensive malpractice for OB-GYNs (video)

Harder to find offices.

Photo by Cody Wolf.

By Jim Kenyon
Posted: Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 5:42 p.m.

OB-GYN's claim a medical malpractice crisis is looming in New York State that's so severe, it's driving doctors out of New York State.

"You're gonna see physicians leaving right and left." says Dr. Richard Waldman, Chairman of the OB-GYN Society.

Waldman says unless the State Legislature intervenes, on July first, the New York Insurance Department will impose a $50,000 dollar surcharge and 20 premium increase on every OB-GYN in the State. It's mean to bail out three major insurance carriers who face a $1.8 billion dollar deficit.

Waldman says it happened under the Pataki administration when the Legislature raided a malpractice insurance pool of 700-million dollars while denying incremental increases in premiums.

"They were actually bankrupting the insurance companies knowingly," says Waldman.

Waldman also blames lawyers and large malpractice awards for much of the problem, but a report by the Public Citizen calls this a "self inflicted crisis." It claims there now no litigation crisis, New York's government is primarily responsible, and there is actually an abundance of doctors.

On March 4th, Waldman will joins hundreds of physicians across the State for a march on Albany to bring attention to the malpractice insurance "crisis." Neither State Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli nor Senator John DeFrancisco could be reached for comment.