Insurance firms join debate over malpractice

Tuesday, March 4, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Insurance companies, which have sat on the sidelines during the fight between doctors and lawyers over medical malpractice, are going to be a target of this Legislature.

The Senate Judiciary Committee received instructions from its legal counsel today on how to subpoena insurance executives to testify about possible reforms in the law.

The committee opened two days of testimony on an initiative petition sought by doctors to tighten the malpractice laws and a similar proposal, Senate Bill 97, introduced by the committee.

Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes told the committee it had the power to subpoena people but it must state the policy their testimony would serve. The subpoena would not be enforceable for those living out of state, she said.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, the chairman of the committee, has indicated he wants insurance executives to testify about the rising medical malpractice rates in Nevada.

James Wadhams, an attorney representing Nevada Mutual Insurance Co., said he has been available and even sat in on part of today's hearing. The company, owned by Nevada physicians, insures 650 doctors.

He said he had tried unsuccessfully to meet with Amodei in his office on a few occasions.

But he said he didn't know whether other insurance companies would be willing to testify. At the special session of the Legislature last June, they were not, he said. Many companies had lost money in Nevada on medical malpractice, he said.

A group called "Keep Our Doctors in Nevada" gathered more than 90,000 signatures on an initiative petition to force the Legislature to tighten the law on medical malpractice, limiting further what patients can collect from non-economic damages such as pain and suffering.

The first witness in support of the petition was Dr. Shelby Wilbourn, an obstetrician who practiced in Las Vegas for 12 years, until last year, when his malpractice insurance was raised from $33,000 a year to $108,000 annually.

He told the committee he never had a malpractice suit filed against him. While managed care organizations were lowering their rates to physicians, his insurance and other costs were rising. He said he was unable to pass along his higher costs.

Wilbourn packed up his family and moved to Maine, where his first year medical malpractice rates are $9,900, he said. After five years the rate will escalate to $34,000, but if he has remained in the low-risk category, he will receive a $10,000 rebate, he said.

He had to pay $108,000 in insurance premiums to cover his "tail" or the prior possible suits that might be filed against him in Nevada, he said. On his last day in Nevada in July, he was sued for the first time.

He said he has kept his Nevada license and knows of other physicians who have left the state.

Bill Bradley, chairman of the medical malpractice subcommittee of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, spoke against the initiative petition and SB97. He said the bill passed by the special legislative session effective last October should be allowed to work. It is a balance between the doctors and the patients.

Bradley, a Reno attorney, said the insurance industry "did not participate" in the special session. He said the companies sat back "and made it look like a fight between lawyers and doctors."

He applauded the committee for its focus on getting insurance companies to the table.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said she has introduced an insurance reform bill and Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, also has one. They will be heard Thursday before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.

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