11th-hour deal provides anesthetists with insurance

Michelle Swafford and Cy Ryan

Thursday, April 1, 2004 | 9:57 a.m.

Four anesthesia providers can continue practicing medicine at Lake Mead Hospital in North Las Vegas after state officials helped them find a new malpractice insurer Wednesday, just as their old policy was set to expire.

Staff of Gov. Kenny Guinn and Nevada Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman's offices helped Dave Haefner and his three colleagues find medical malpractice insurance on the day their policy expired, enabling them to continue their 13-year relationship with Lake Mead Hospital's obstetrics department.

Late Wednesday afternoon Nevada Mutual Insurance Co. agreed to insure the group of certified registered nurse anesthetists, effective at midnight Wednesday when the other policy with TIG insurance company expired.

The group's premiums rose from $26,000 to $62,000 for one year. In addition to the premium, the group will have to pay $28,000 for two year's worth of tail coverage to cover any claims that are based on care while insured by TIG.

Haefner said TIG isn't writing any more policies and his group was having trouble finding an insurance provider so he wrote a letter to the governor and state insurance commission asking for help to prevent Nevada from losing more medical professionals as a result of diminishing number of malpractice insurers.

Because Nevada is considered a high-risk malpractice state with a high number of malpractice lawsuits, it was difficult to obtain insurance coverage initially, Haefner said.

"If it hadn't been for the hard work for the governor and the insurance commissioner, I don't' know that we would have insurance," Haefner said.

"It's statewide problem. Once again these insurance companies cannot make any actuarial decisions, because there was not meaningful tort reform in the state."

Greg Bortolin, press secretary for the governor, said, "We hooked the company up with them to get insurance."

Bortolin credited the state Insurance Division with doing most of the work. Chuck Knaus of the division said TIG insurance company had stopped writing most medical malpractice insurance policies and had given notice to those nurses who were affected.

Knaus said Nevada Mutual Insurance Company agreed to "treat it as a priority" in writing the policy to take effect the same day it agreed to write the policy. He added that some certified registered nurse anesthetists in rural Nevada may face the same problem, but nobody has contacted the Insurance Division.

Nancy Whitman, director of business services for Lake Mead Hospital, said Haefner's group has provided services for a long time and is the main provider of anesthesia in the hospital's obstetrics department.

"Anytime you might lose a group of providers due to malpractice insurance, of course we're always concerned about that," Whitman said. "It's just like the obstetrics crisis when a lot of doctors left the state."