Group starts malpractice company
 
Looking to stabilize its medical malpractice premiums and hold down health care costs, a Tarrytown-based medical specialty group has started a malpractice insurance company for its physicians.
ENT and Allergy Associates. L.L.P (ENTA) has formed Otolaryngology, Allergy Specialty Insurance Services, or OASIS, a separate company domiciled in Vermont and the first risk retention group to provide medical malpractice coverage exclusively to ear, nose and throat physicians and allergists, according to ENTA officials.
They said the pioneering business move is a way for the 98-physician private practice to avoid continued substantial premium increases expected to result from the mounting deficits faced by New York”™s largest liability insurance carriers and the failure of the state Legislature to enact tort reform to address rising medical malpractice claims and costs. Officials said the new company also will allow ENTA to focus on controlling the risks unique to its specialty to ensure patient safety and physicians”™ compliance with its risk management policies.
ENTA”™s current risk profile is less than half the national average, based on both malpractice claims made and those resulting in monetary settlements, according to the Tarrytown company.
“In the absence of tort reform, we believe that controlling the costs associated with malpractice is one way we can help lower the cost of the health care delivery model,” Dr. Wayne Eisman, president of ENTA, said in the company”™s recent announcement of OASIS”™s launch.
Dr. Steven Sacks, newly elected president of OASIS, said the company”™s Vermont domicile will enable it to manage risk within ENTA”™s single specialty. “Unlike community-rated states like New York where risk is pooled across multiple specialties and rates determined accordingly, our program will be geared specifically to our risks, which should result in lower claims, stable premiums and lower patient care costs,” he said.
ENTA CEO Robert Glazer said the self-insurance project was a 15-month undertaking that involved top consulting, legal, accounting and actuarial firms in the captive insurance industry. Though only ENTA physicians will be allowed to join the insurance program at the start, specialists outside the group practice have expressed interest, he said.
“Whether we will seek an outside market for our product will depend on our success over the first two to three years, but it”™s encouraging to hear from our fellow ENTs that we are on the right path,” Glazer said.