Plan to subsidize doctors’ insurance premiums tabled

Wednesday, May 28, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- With the state running short of money, a proposal to provide a subsidy of up to $30,000 to doctors to help pay their medical malpractice insurance premiums has been abandoned.

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday to eliminate a $3 million appropriation that was in Senate Bill 250 to help the doctors cope with the rising cost of their malpractice policies.

He said four other bills have been passed or are near approval that should help stabilize doctors' insurance rates.

He also dropped his proposal to require the state Board of Medical Examiners to move its headquarters from Reno to Las Vegas in 2007, when the lease on the present offices expires.

Townsend and Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, had pushed through a bill in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee calling for the subsidy and other changes in the medical examiners board.

The board has been a target of criticism from doctors in Las Vegas, who say the board has not taken any steps to alleviate the insurance crisis that hit Southern Nevada physicians. The board says its duty is to regulate the profession to guard against errant and unscrupulous physicians.

Townsend and O'Connell initially wanted to pay for the subsidy from the the medical examiners' reserves. However that was dismissed after the examiners board said it didn't have the money to finance the subsidy.

Townsend said he would find a "funding mechanism" for the $3 million. But he said Tuesday he had been unable to come up with any plan for financing the subsidy.

Townsend and O'Connell sought to move the offices of the board to Las Vegas. Southern Nevada doctors complained the board seldom meets in Las Vegas and doctors must travel to Reno to conduct business.

The board is meeting this Friday in Reno, and it will be the first meeting video-conferenced to Southern Nevada. The meeting will be seen at 2310 Corporate Circle, Suite 200 in Henderson starting at 9:30 a.m.

The board is also meeting Saturday, but most of those sessions are closed because they are disciplinary cases. The Saturday session will not be video- conferenced.

Keith Lee, lobbyist for the medical examiners board, said the board at its meeting intends to discuss setting up a branch office in Southern Nevada. The board had an office in Las Vegas but it was closed several years ago due to lack of activity.

Townsend said last week in testimony to the finance committee that the board should be located in Las Vegas, where 70 percent of the physicians practice. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, questioned the wisdom of moving the office to Southern Nevada.

Lee and Townsend had worked out a compromise to SB250 that allowed the elimination of the required relocations of the headquarters.

The board at its meeting Friday will also discuss procedures for replacing its top management. Larry Lessly, executive director, and Richard Legarza, counsel to the board, notified the board several months ago they did not intend to stay past June 30, 2004.

Lessly said Tuesday he wants the board "to set the wheels in motion" to find replacements. He said he is going to recommend that board authorize deputies be hired for his and LeGarza's positions, and that will give them a chance to be trained before the two men depart.

According to information supplied the Legislature, Lessly earns $156,380 and Legarza makes $138,635.

Also departing is Robert Frantz, financial manager of the board, who is retiring in September.