Ob/Gyns To Levy Surcharge

To Make Up Insurance

HARTFORD (AP) — A group of Connecticut doctors says it will levy a $500 surcharge on pregnant women to help pay for skyrocketing medical malpractice costs.

Women’s Health Connecticut, a statewide partnership of obstetricians and gynecologists, said Tuesday that its 150 doctors in 27 practices will charge the extra fee to patients after September 1, the Connecticut Post reported.

The surcharge would go into a fund to pay malpractice costs. It would apply only to deliveries.

The surcharge may violate some health care provider agreements, said Nancy Bernstein, the organization’s president and chief executive officer.

She said the fee is necessary to offset malpractice insurance premiums for obstetricians and gynecologists, which have risen to between $100,000 and $150,000 a year, up from about $15,000 annually only three years ago.

“The system is broken,” she said. “Everyone needs to understand this is an absolute crisis.”

Bernstein said the WHC would abandon the surcharge, which would be paid by the health plan, employer, or the patient, if the legislature passes a medical malpractice reform bill the doctors believed would reduce rates.

Gov John G. Rowland vowed earlier this month to veto the legislature’s plan for reducing medical malpractice insurance rates, saying it would not solve the problem.

Mr Rowland, a Republican, wanted a bill that would limit the amount of money juries could award for pain and suffering in malpractice lawsuits, a move physicians’ groups say will lower malpractice insurance rates. The bill that passed in the General Assembly does not include those caps.

At least one insurer, Shelton-based HealthNet of the Northeast Inc, says it needs more information from WHC before deciding whether to pay the surcharge.

“We do have an established fee schedule with our doctors and we hope that they adhere to that,” spokeswoman Alice Ferreira said.

Doctors in other states have added extra charges to defray high malpractice insurance costs, said Amy Cole, a spokeswoman for the Fairfield County Medical Association.

Some of the FCMA’s member doctors have asked about levying surcharges, but the association is uncertain if it is legal, Cole said.