Study- Doctors stopping high-risk procedures due to insurance

ATLANTA -- Nearly one in five Georgia doctors are abandoning high-risk medical procedures, including delivering babies, and hundreds more are leaving the state or retiring because of high medical malpractice insurance rates, according to a study released Saturday.

"Medical liability insurance is a serious problem in Georgia," said Bruce Deighton, executive director of the Georgia Board for Physician Workforce, which released the study. "We're not saying we have an answer to correct that, but it does have an impact on the physician supply in Georgia and it does reduce access to medical care in Georgia."

Doctors in several states have complained about rising malpractice insurance rates, driven at least in part by large jury awards. Some surgeons in West Virginia and Mississippi temporarily walked off the job in protest earlier this month, and New Jersey doctors are considering a walkout in February.

The board, an advisory body to the Legislature, surveyed 2,200 Georgia doctors for the study.

It projected that about 2,800 Georgia doctors -- or nearly 18 percent -- were expected to stop providing high-risk procedures to limit their liability. Nearly one in three obstetrician/gynecologists surveyed said they will abandon high-risk procedures, such as delivering babies.

About 11 percent of Georgia doctors have stopped or will stop providing emergency room services, and 4 percent have decided to leave the state or retire because of high insurance rates, the study said.

In June, the American Medical Association said Georgia was one of 12 "crisis" states where rising insurance costs could lead doctors to leave or limit their practices.

Georgia requires medical liability insurance for doctors to practice there, and the prices are high.

The 2002 rates reported by the doctors surveyed ranged from just under $8,000 a year for psychiatry to more than $60,000 for neurosurgery. Obstetricians reported paying nearly $50,000. And the doctors reported prices increasing anywhere from 11 percent to 30 percent in the last year.

About 13 percent of doctors had difficulty finding malpractice insurance coverage, and one in five changed insurance carriers last year, the study said.

Medical groups in Georgia, including the Medical Association of Georgia and the Georgia Hospital Association, want legislation that would limit damages for pain and suffering in malpractice cases.

"We don't want to see (a strike) in Georgia," said David Cook, executive director of the medical association. "What we want to do is have a responsible solution to the problem."