Medical Malpractice Insurance: Multiple Factors Have Contributed to Increased Premium Rates (June 2003)

What this document is

GAO-03-702: Medical Malpractice Insurance: Multiple Factors Have Contributed to Increased Premium Rates (June 2003) is a reference published by U.S. Government Accountability Office (text as served by govinfo.gov). It is one of the documents that insurance license exam questions are written from, including property & casualty practice questions. This page summarizes it and points to the official version, which is the text to rely on.

Sections cited in practice questions

Each practice answer shows the exact passage it comes from. These are sections of this document that questions cite, with a short excerpt from the source text.

• GAO-03-702, Medical Malpractice Insurance (footnote 13)

  “Claims-made policies cover claims reported during the year in which the policy is in effect. Occurrence-based policies cover claims arising out of events that occurred but may not have been reported during the year in which the policy was in effect.”

• GAO-03-702, Medical Malpractice Insurance (Insurers Began Selling Claims-Made Rather Than Occurrence-Based Policies)

  “Because claims-made policies cover only reported claims, insurers can better estimate the payouts they will have to make in the future. Occurrence-based policies do not provide such certainty, because they leave insurers liable for claims related to the incidents that occurred during a given year,...”

• GAO-03-702, Medical Malpractice Insurance (Appendix, Typical Coverage Type and Limit)

  “Prior acts coverage is a supplement to a claims-made policy that can be purchased from a new carrier when changing carriers. Prior acts coverage covers incidents that occurred prior to the switch to a new carrier but had not been previously reported.”

• GAO-03-702, Medical Malpractice Insurance (footnote 12)

  “Some industry officials have characterized hard markets as periods of rapidly rising premium rates, tightened underwriting standards, narrowed coverage, and the withdrawal of insurers from certain markets.”

Practice this material

Questions about this source

More Federal sources sources

• Coverage for Pre-existing Conditions (Affordable Care Act) - HealthCare.govFederal guidance
• 20 C.F.R. § 404.1520 -- Evaluation of Disability in General (the five-step sequential evaluation process)Regulation
• Parts of Medicare (Medicare & You / medicare.gov)Federal guidance
• Continuation of Health Coverage (COBRA) - U.S. Department of LaborReference
• Portability of Health Coverage (HIPAA) - U.S. Department of LaborReference
• Fair Credit Reporting Act - 15 U.S.C. § 1681a (Definitions)State statute
• 15 U.S.C. s. 1681b: FCRA permissible purposes of consumer reportsState statute
• 15 U.S.C. s. 1681c: FCRA requirements relating to obsolete information in consumer reportsState statute