Colorado avoids malpractice crisis.(News)

In places like Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Florida, some ob.gyns, are getting out of the practice of delivering babies or they are moving out of their states because of the current professional liability crisis.

Colorado, on the other hand, has no such problem. In fact, medical malpractice insurance rates in Colorado may be attracting physicians.

Why? Many say it is because Colorado has a cap of $1 million on malpractice awards, including $300,000 allowed for noneconomic damages such as disfigurement and physical disability.

In 1988, the year Colorado passed its legislation limiting malpractice awards, the average obstetrician paid $61,904 in malpractice insurance premiums, according to George Dikeou, a legislative consultant in Denver for COPIC, the nonprofit, physician-run insurer that covers malpractice for about 80% of all physicians in Colorado. Adjusted for inflation, that would equal more than $100,000 today, but last year, the average obstetrician paid $37,206 for COPIC coverage.

The cap is not a hard limit--juries can award more than $1 million, but then the award must be reviewed by the judge--but it has limited awards and that has contributed to the low premiums. The largest verdict ever in Colorado was for $3.2 million. Mr. Dikeou said.

Some evidence suggests that the low rates may be attracting physicians to Colorado, and at the very least they may be keeping them there and practicing obstetrics. According to figures from Peregrine Management Corp., a practice consulting firm in Lakewood, there were 2,178 physicians who relocated to Colorado last year. Of those, 50% came from the 19 states that the American Medical Association has identified as "crisis" states, where escalating premiums are threatening practices and perhaps compromising the availability of physicians.

Peregrine Management said that another 40% of those physicians came from states that aren't crisis states but have been hard hit by recent premium increases.