Danna Gracey Inc.

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	January 10, 2012 We keep hearing that a “hard” market is coming for malpractice insurance in Florida. What does this really mean and when should we be concerned? The market cycle for malpractice insurance in Florida has fairly predictable cycles, with extreme fluctuations in pricing and insurers’ underwriting. For example, the late 1990s and early 2000s were similar to market cycle we are presently in, which is th... » READ MORE
	January 08, 2012 Buyer Beware - Many Cheap Malpractice-Insurance Offers May Be Coming Your Way These Days... Florida doctors are now enjoying a very “soft” buyer-centered market cycle, although I believe this is close to ending. Back in 2000 we were in a similar market cycle, which led to many insurers pulling out of the state and the others dramatically increa... » READ MORE
	December 01, 2011 State of the Florida Medical Malpractice Insurance Market Report: 4th Quarter, 2011 “Who will blink first?” ... » READ MORE
	October 16, 2011 Planning for the New 3.8% Medicare Tax on Unearned Income President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act proposes a new and unprecedented Medicare tax that will directly affect many physicians. The tax, which goes into effect on January 1, 2013, is made up of two parts: an additional .9% surtax on... » READ MORE
	October 05, 2011 Florida Workers’ Comp Rates on the Rise? In the insurance industry, like life, things tend to be cyclical. After more than seven years of declining rates and premiums, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) recently recommended a rate increase of 8.9% in Florida, to take effect on... » READ MORE
	October 01, 2011 “Fast/Good/Cheap: You can have only two.” This quote relates well to the present state of the medical-malpractice-insurance market. We are in a very “soft” market, meaning the premiums are low because the frequency of claims against doctors is at a historically low level in most areas. This in... » READ MORE
	October 01, 2011 Going Mobile! By now you have surely seen those odd looking black and white squares in magazines, newspapers, on signs, and online? They’re called QR codes (abbreviated from Quick Response code). First designed for the automotive industry by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wa... » READ MORE
	September 01, 2011 Recent court ruling further restricts NICA claims: Will even more OB/GYNs go bare? OB/GYNs have for years been one of the highest-rated specialties for malpractice-insurance rates. Consequently, many have decided to drop their malpractice-insurance coverage, particularly in South Florida, where insurance premiums can cost double their p... » READ MORE
	August 01, 2011 Many cheap malpractice-insurance offers are coming my way these days. How can I go wrong by saving so much, particularly since my practice’s income is going down and my expenses are going up? Florida doctors are now enjoying a very “soft” buyer-centered market cycle, although I believe this is close to ending. Back in 2000 we were in a similar market cycle, which led to many insurers pulling out of the state and the others dramatically... » READ MORE
	July 01, 2011 Why is a rating of a malpractice insurance company so important? Are some rating agencies considered better than others? An insurer with a high rating from A.M. Best could be considered the equivalent of a doctor being board certified, experienced, and considered competent in their chosen specialty by an outside peer review group. For some years now many doctors and thei... » READ MORE
	May 01, 2011 Q: When a new doctor or a group of doctors is considering selling out to a hospital, will the hospital force the practice to purchase an expensive “tail” for its malpractice insurance policy or will the doctors be allowed to keep their retroactive coverag A: Hospitals and doctors looking to become hospital employees undoubtedly have two different perspectives on this issue. Hospitals prefer not to purchase retroactive coverage for the doctors they purchase for a number of reasons. The first is the decrease... » READ MORE
	April 01, 2011 Increasing Trouble with As more doctors join hospitals or are considering doing so we are seeing more trouble created in the transactions by the doctors’ malpractice insurance tail issues. Once a doctor terminates his or her coverage for their practice and moves into a hospit... » READ MORE
	March 01, 2011 Closing the Malpractice Coverage Gap - Carrying separate entity coverage for your practice … Many physicians are not aware of the importance and relatively low cost of purchasing separate-entity coverage for their practice. A separate-entity layer of coverage can protect the physician from a recorded loss if the claim can be settled under separat... » READ MORE
	February 12, 2011 Seven ways you could be wasting money on your malpractice insurance Did you know that most doctors waste money on malpractice insurance, which is one of the largest expenses each year in a medical practice? Here are just seven of the most common ways doctors continually spend too much: 1. Not asking for all of the... » READ MORE
	February 11, 2011 New Administration Looking to Overhaul Florida’s Workers’ Comp Even before he ever took office it was clear that Governor Rick Scott was serious about changing Florida’s legislative and regulatory landscape. One of his campaign pledges included reducing workers’ compensation costs by 35%. He recently renewed this ple... » READ MORE
	February 10, 2011 Accountable Care Organizations: To Be or Not To Be? Healthcare reform finally became a reality in our country with the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in March 2010. As we attempt to synthesize the broad-reaching changes brought about by this momentous...... » READ MORE
	February 01, 2011 RACaphobia RACaphobia is defined as an intense and persistent fear of an RAC Audit. As we have all become aware, RAC is an acronym that stands for Recovery Audit Contractor. These contractors are charged with the responsibility of implementing the Centers for Med... » READ MORE
	January 01, 2011 New Year’s Malpractice Insurance Resolutions In working with doctors and practice administrators throughout Florida for years on their malpractice insurance placement, I have often hoped that these simple resolutions would somehow make it on their resolutions lists. Even as important as malpractice... » READ MORE
	December 10, 2010 The Bare Doctor Movement: Q: How many bare doctors are now practicing in Florida and have they begun purchasing coverage again now that malpractice premiums are so much lower?... » READ MORE
	November 10, 2010 Why healthcare reforms will inevitably create more lawsuits The one conclusion we can all agree upon as healthcare reforms begin is that, by definition, change is happening in medicine. With change comes potential for an explosion of lawsuits against doctors and hospitals if we are not careful. As we all know, v... » READ MORE
	September 09, 2010 As more doctors consider selling out to hospitals, should they be concerned with any malpractice liability issues? Yes, there certainly are some issues that don’t seem to be much thought about by those who have already joined hospitals. The main one that I am worried about is that most hospitals are demanding that they be the ones to decide the many important factors... » READ MORE
	September 01, 2010 Why Outsourcing HR Makes Sense Now More than ever before, medical professionals are finding that outsourcing non-core business operations can help control costs and improve efficiency. Payroll and human resources are two areas in which professional practices have traditionally maintained c... » READ MORE
	September 01, 2010 Workers' Compensation Expert Advice Q: Our practice occasionally receives money back from our workers’ compensation carrier. How can we tell if this is a dividend or return of excess company profits or premium?... » READ MORE
	August 01, 2010 Why Do I Need a Broker if Med Mal Insurance Is Really a Commodity? What do you really know about the role and cost of the insurance broker handling your malpractice insurance coverage? Most doctors and administrators are not completely clear about this and recently a new, small startup medical malpractice insurer in Flor... » READ MORE
	July 07, 2010 Do you see malpractice insurance rates in Florida for physicians and surgeons continuing to decrease in the next few years? I believe that the malpractice insurance market in Florida has now entered a new phase of level premiums for the next year. We will see pressure for small increases in the years to follow as the insurers’ profits are much thinner and expenses continue to... » READ MORE
	June 01, 2010 What limits of liability for malpractice do you recommend for doctors in Florida? This is probably the toughest question any expert in medical malpractice insurance is asked. Unfortunately, no easy answer exists that are appropriate for every doctor, but after considering all of the factors you will certainly be in a better position t... » READ MORE
	May 10, 2010 Thoughts on Healthcare Reforms and the Malpractice Insurance Market If we are really in one if those chance-of-a-lifetime moments to fix healthcare, the fact that tort reform is completely off the table could be because of temporarily low malpractice insurance rates.... » READ MORE
	May 09, 2010 Workers’ Compensation Expert Advice Q: If our practice uses a payroll company or a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), can we carve out the workers’ compensation coverage to join a dividend program that will be more favorable?... » READ MORE
	May 03, 2010 Insurance Coverage Issues Related to Medical Directorships Clinics, labs, surgicenters, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and nursing homes are among facilities where doctors perform medical directorships. In many cases, doctors acting as medical directors are told to provide their own coverage for their pro... » READ MORE
	April 01, 2010 When choosing a malpractice insurance company, how can I tell which one is going to vigorously defend me? Defending claims is really where “the rubber meets the road” in malpractice insurance! Doctors and their administrators often get hung up in looking just at premium quotes, marketing slogans, brokers’ service or personalities, or insurance-policy provisi... » READ MORE
	February 01, 2010 Will my malpractice insurance cover me if I start doing rounds in a local nursing home? The claims exposure for doctors going into nursing homes is much higher than for their normal practice, so most malpractice insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for this exposure.... » READ MORE
	November 21, 2009 2009 Workers’ Compensation Update: Rates down for an unprecedented 7th consecutive year Everyone can agree that the 2003 workers’ compensation legislative reform has done exactly what it was designed to do. Florida employers have benefited as a system that was among one of the worst in the country has become one of the best, with premiums ra... » READ MORE
	July 04, 2009 Avoiding a Suit - The Cultural Communication Challenges Much has been written on communication issues leading to malpractice lawsuits in health care because communication is the vital link not only between the patient and the doctors, but at every step of care, among each and every cast member involved in the... » READ MORE
	April 05, 2009 2009 Workers’ Compensation Update: Florida Workers’ Compensation Rate Increase Approved In my November 2008 update I spoke about the Murray v. Mariner Health Florida Supreme Court decision (October 2008) and the anticipated impact this case would have on the Florida Workers Compensation system. In summary, the Supreme Court’s decision elimin... » READ MORE
	April 05, 2009 The Buyers’ Market Continues for Med Mal Insurance! One of the few bright spots in our economy is that malpractice insurance premiums have fallen by roughly a third for most Florida doctors over the last three to four years. We are firmly into a “soft” insurance market when many insurers compete against e... » READ MORE
	November 18, 2008 2008 Workers’ Compensation Update: Florida Supreme Court Deals Setback to 2003 Reforms It was less than one year ago that I wrote about enjoying the softening workers compensation market while it lasts. The Florida Supreme Court has spoken and the news is not good for Florida employers, especially at a time when they are already dealing wit... » READ MORE
	November 01, 2008 Good News for the Malpractice Insurance Market Malpractice insurance markets have greatly improved As we move forward into the second half of 2008, we find the Florida malpractice insurance marketplace continuing to improve with rates decreasing and underwriting requirements loosening.... » READ MORE
	November 01, 2008 New Network Improves Patient Safety Medical liability protection requires that physicians are well-informed about patient safety issues quickly and reliably. The Health Care Notification Network (HCNN) is a new network to deliver drug safety alerts online to U.S. physicians and was recentl... » READ MORE
	September 23, 2008 Malpractice Insurance Cost Docs $184 Million Less in 2007 By now physicians and surgeons across Florida have realized that the malpractice insurance crisis of the early 2000s is over. Mailings, faxes and advertisements from agents and insurers, some large, established ones, and some new start-ups, are bombarding... » READ MORE
	September 23, 2008 Florida Med Mal Claims and Rates Decline Medical liability claims declined in 2007, and many insurers are offering lower rates, according to a report from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.... » READ MORE
	September 01, 2008 $9.7 Million Verdict Against Bare Doctor In mid-June a Lee County jury awarded nearly $10 million to a Ft. Meyers woman in a failure to diagnose allegation case in which the trial lasted two weeks. Dr. Kenneth Berdick, an internal medicine doctor in Ft. Meyers, had no professional liability ins... » READ MORE
	June 10, 2008 When is a Strike a Strike? In a close baseball game, plate umpires can change the outcome by changing the size of the strike zone. It seems that our lawmakers and judges are in the same mode while dealing with the amendments passed in 2004. The good news for doctors is that the... » READ MORE
	June 10, 2008 2008 Workers’ Compensation Update: Enjoy the Soft Market While it Lasts For the fifth straight year, workers compensation premiums have fallen. Effective January 1, 2008 the NCCI (National Council for Compensation Insurance) recommended a 16.5% rate decrease. Florida’s insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty signed off on a larg... » READ MORE
	September 25, 2007 The Caring Part of Risk Management The focus of so many risk management courses for doctors has been about the old standard of document, document, document. How many CME courses have you sat through drilling you with this worthy defensive motto? As important and essential as good documen... » READ MORE
	June 12, 2007 Medicine and Malpractice Insurance: An Historical Alliance Now that malpractice insurance prices are falling again there will be less temptation for physicians to practice without insurance. All seem to agree there must be some remedy for patients who become seriously injured as a result of true medical negligen... » READ MORE
	June 01, 2007 State of the Florida Malpractice Insurance Market - 2nd Quarter 2007 The Florida malpractice insurance marketplace is clearly now in the beginning of the “soft” market phase. Rates are decreasing 10 – 20%, more insurers are entering the market, underwriting requirements are loosening, and there is a decreasing need for ex... » READ MORE
	March 13, 2007 Workers’ Comp Update: Good News for Medical Practices It’s turning out to be another good year for medical practices that provide workers’ compensation for their employees. As a result of some favorable legislative action that started in 2003, the rate for physician/clerical (8832) has decreased for the seco... » READ MORE
	October 01, 2006 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Medical Directorships Ironically, shortly after being asked to write this article, we received a call from a physical therapy practice that recently approached a physician to discuss the physician’s becoming a potential... » READ MORE
	September 01, 2006 Medical Malpractice Insurance Evaluation Checklist You are encouraged to use this checklist every year to ask important questions about your current policy and company or one that you might be considering.... » READ MORE
	August 01, 2006 State of the Florida Malpractice Insurance Market - 3rd Quarter 2006 Overall: Good News for Doctors The tide has finally firmly changed in the medical malpractice marketplace in Florida. In the last 18 months the market’s rates have been stable instead of rapidly increasing as they had been during the height of Florida’s... » READ MORE
	August 01, 2006 Thoughts about the "Bare" Movement As the number of doctors in Florida practicing without malpractice insurance approaches unofficial estimates of 8,500 out of the approximately 32,000 total active Florida physicians, a number...... » READ MORE
	June 01, 2006 Hospitals and Insured Doctors to See Less Liability from Bare Doctors Hospitals and insured doctors are feeling a bit relieved these days about their liability exposure for doctors who are uninsured. With the number of bare doctors rising, hospitals and insured doctors had become increasingly at risk...... » READ MORE
	May 06, 2006 Malpractice insurance Tips The problems of getting insurance coverage for medical directorships... » READ MORE
	November 01, 2005 Questioning Widely Held Beliefs of Doctors Practicing Bare The most recent movement of doctors in Florida going bare is now almost three years old so some interesting observations can be made about this phenomenon. Florida is one of the only places in the nation where state laws allow doctors to practice without... » READ MORE
	October 06, 2005 Insurance Insights into Locum Tenens Exposure As malpractice insurance specialists we are continually being questioned about when and how coverage for locum tenens can be structured. Many doctors commonly assume that locum tenens coverage is automatic, which it is not, and the tail issues with locum... » READ MORE
	June 01, 2005 Expert Advise About Practicing “Bare” Many doctors in south Florida have either “gone bare” or are wondering if this is their best course of action to manage their malpractice risk.... » READ MORE
	May 14, 2005 Thoughts about practicing medicine in Florida without malpractice insurance coverage By: Matt Gracey Danna Gracey, Inc. and Medical Defense Soluations, Inc.... » READ MORE

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