Experience Rating in Med Mal

[mgrace]

Most people are amazed that medical malpractice insurers may not experience rate their insureds. Does anyone know of companies (names not important) that do or do not experience rate physicians for med mal purposes? If there is no experience rating, what are the common reasons given for not experience rating?

[Colymbosathon ecplecticos]

I'm not a med-mal expert, but just how many claims do you expect the average doctor to have? You certainly don't want to experience rate based on reports.

[Maine-iac]

I don't have any experience in this line, but given the frequency vs. severity issues, I would think "experience" would be taken into account more in underwriting a given doc than in setting rates.

[Cloister]

Perhaps not at the individual doctor level, but hospitals and physician groups that take on a substantial deductible are almost certainly going to be rated based at least partially on their own experience.

[Mobile Actuary]

There are claim-free discounts that are a form of experience rating. A major problem is the length of time it takes to adjudicate claims. A doctor may not have any paid claims from the most recent few years, but some number of open claims. Would you rate him up for claims on which there may be no loss payment? Alternatively, would you rate him up for paid claims from five or more years ago?

[mgrace]

The reason I asked this question is because Judge Posner on his blog (http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/ar...eformposn.html)wrote that there was no experience rating and he was taken to task for the error by someone who seems informed about the process (see comments at http://yclipse.typepad.com/mmm/2005/..._misses_o.html). I was under the impression that there was little or no real experience rating for med mal.

[MNBridge]

Originally Posted by Cloister

Perhaps not at the individual doctor level, but hospitals and physician groups that take on a substantial deductible are almost certainly going to be rated based at least partially on their own experience.

Doctor or physician groups and Hospitals are rated on a case by case basis. How much of it's 'experience' v 'exposure or industry' depends on the size, underwriter and broker.