Medical malpractice insurance company pulling out of Nevada

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- APA, a medical malpractice insurance company that received permission to raise rates by 10.5 percent in December, is pulling out of Nevada.

State Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman said Wednesday she received notice Jan. 15 that the company, based in Michigan, was withdrawing from the market because it was not profitable enough.

APA covers about 125 physicians. Molasky-Arman said there were still seven companies writing medical malpractice insurance and she feels doctors will be able to get coverage.

"There is enough to take care of the physicians here," she said.

APA will be sending out its notices April 1 that it won't renew its policies. Molasky-Arman said the new law requires insurance companies that are withdrawing from the state must give 60 days notice to "non-essential" physicians. And it must provide 120 days notice to those considered essential such as obstetricians, trauma physicians and others in highly specialized areas.

If replacement insurance is not readily available, Molasky-Arman said she could delay the withdrawal by another 60 days.

The commissioner said APA had been downgraded by A.M. Best, the insurance rating company. She said the company subsequently decided to concentrate its business in the Midwest and, "Nevada does not fit into its strategic long-range plans."

She said she had tried to talk AMA into staying in Nevada.

"I was a lot happier when we had 10," malpractice insurance companies, Molasky-Arman said. "But for the number of people in Nevada (seven companies) is still pretty good in view of what is going on elsewhere in the nation."

APA applied last year for a 10.5 percent rate increase and it was granted effective Dec. 1.