Physician: Heal Thyself!
The medical malpractice terrain is littered with misinformation, legislative problems, and hostility amongst lawyers, doctors and insurance companies. One insurance company, owned by its pediatrician/members, believes that doctors can substantially reduce their risk of malpractice lawsuits through quality practice and patient management. Pediatricians Insurance RRG of America, Inc. is based in Florida, intends to also cover doctors in Texas and Utah, and provides comprehensive risk management and loss prevention programs to help reduce legal liability exposure for its members.
(PRWEB) March 27, 2005 -- Don’t look to the federal or state legislatures to
control medical malpractice costs. “We can do it ourselves,” is the mantra of
Pediatricians Insurance Risk Retention Group of America (PIRRGA). Now in its
second year, the small, innovative insurance provider is having real success in
Florida. “Doctors can reduce their risk, practice better medicine, be aware of
problem patients, and avoid lawsuits,” says the company’s president, Gene Rosov.
PIRRGA first issued Florida policies in February, 2004. According to the
industry’s “Crittenden Medical Insurance News,” Texas and Utah are next in
line.
“Doctors and legislators are looking for solutions in all the wrong
places,” says Rosov, who runs the company with a team of insurance, medical and
legal experts. PIRRGA provides substantial premium refunds to the doctors who
participate in its risk management education and loss prevention programs. The
company is owned by its doctor/members.
PIRRGA examined the principal
causes of malpractice litigation and constructed a comprehensive program to help
its member/physicians avoid lawsuits. The program begins with proper patient
“charting.” PIRRGA is providing a special “sick-visit encounter form” to its
physicians, which leads the doctor through a stepwise process to cover all the
key bases. The forms are faxed daily to the company. The next morning, it
reports in one page on laboratory tests, specialist referrals, patient vital
signs measurement and pricing/coding guidelines. Forms are then electronically
available to the physician on a protected website. “Many physicians will find
that they’re cheating themselves of real revenue,” says Rosov, who claims that
the coding program alone can add $500 to $2000 to a pediatrician’s monthly
revenue.
PIRRGA requires its doctors to digest a monthly article on
medical and medical-malpractice issues and answer questions. Quarterly
small-group teleconferences keep physicians in touch with the latest changes in
pediatric healthcare, diagnosis and regional issues. PIRRGA members use the
company’s discharge form handouts for most sick-visits. The forms provide
detailed guidance about what do if a child’s condition changes or worsens after
leaving the office. Parents sign the form to show understanding and compliance,
and this helps to forestall a common lawsuit complaint: “The doctor never told
me.”
The company provides a Patient-Physician Arbitration Agreement,
available on the Internet (www.arbitrationagreement.com) and promoted with an office
handout. “The Agreement assures the patient that if there’s a problem, it will
be settled by qualified arbitrators and paid quickly, not over the 2 to 3 years
typical for a court case – and it reduces frivolous lawsuits,” says PIRRGA’s
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Todd Zimmerman. Dual board-certified in pediatrics
and pediatric emergency medicine, Dr. Zimmerman chairs PIRRGA’s Underwriting
& Risk Management Committee. “Discharge forms, arbitration agreements, daily
encounter forms reporting, monthly information articles and teleconferences all
help our doctors practice safer medicine, and alerts them to possible practice
problems,” he says.
“We can’t legislate better medicine,” says Dr.
Zimmerman, “or forestall a few unscrupulous law firms from persuading people to
sue doctors unfairly. But we can help improve the quality of care, and we can
increase our members’ awareness of problems, issues, and ‘lottery-minded’
patients.”
For more information about PIRRGA (www.pirrga.com), contact Gene
Rosov, President, at 305 751-9195. Domiciled in Vermont, PIRRGA has offices in
Miami and is a Florida-approved insurance carrier.
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb222239.htm