Doctors Continue Practice Despite Insurance Protest

Several hundred Massachusetts physicians who last week opted to treat only patients with life-threatening conditions to protest hikes in their malpractice insurance rates may now be seeing more people.

Some legislators and medical officials say the job action, which does not include Harvard-employed physicians, may be easing in response to assurances that state lawmakers will act to address their concerns.

Barbara A. Rockett, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said that some physicians were resuming their services with the understanding that the state legislature would take action before the first payments on their insurance were due. "I would predict there will be utter chaos [if the legislature does not act]" she said.

Various medical groups have been consulting with state legislators on possible remedies. "I think that by the fifth of March we will have a bill put together," said State Rep. Francis H. Woodward, chairman of the committee on insurance.

Too Risky

The doctors, mostly obstetricians and orthopedists, claim that the costs for insuring themselves against malpractice suits make practicing medicine too risky and too expensive in this state.

The difficulties of managing the malpractice insurance increases are compounded by a state law that requires physicians to charge only what the patients' medical insurance will allow. This means that regardless of actual costs, the maximum fee a doctor can charge is determined by the patient's insurance rates.

Many physicians in the high-risk fields, like surgery and obstetrics, are choosing to perform only relatively safe services or to leave the state, according to Rockett.

Woodward said that possible solutions would involve some kind of short-term remedy for the large insurance rate increases and possibly a ceiling on the amount of money a patient can sue for in a malpractice case.

Physicians and hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School are insured by Harvard's private insurance company, which has not increased its rates as dramatically as the Joint Underwriting Association, which insures most physicians in Massachusetts.

Several hospitals have been referring patients with injuries that were not life-threatening to hospitals that are not affected by the protest. As of last Friday, Mount Auburn Hospital, which is a major teaching hospital for the Medical School, had received a half dozen patients referred from hospitals that would not admit them, according to Peter M. Gerace, vice president of the hospital.