HOUSE BILL NO. HB0173. Medical malpractice insurance premium pool.

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1 00 STATE OF WYOMING 0LSO-0 HOUSE BILL NO. HB0 Medical malpractice insurance premium pool. Sponsored by: Representative(s) Hinckley, Buchanan, Cohee, Harvey, Illoway, Olsen and Ross A BILL for AN ACT relating to a medical malpractice insurance premium pool; creating the medical malpractice insurance premium pool; proving legislative findings and purposes; authorizing payments of physicians' medical malpractice insurance premiums as specified; providing requirements; specifying duties of insurance commissioner; providing an appropriation; providing a sunset date; and providing for an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming: to read: Section. W.S. --0 and --0 are created ARTICLE MEDICAL MALPRACTICE INSURANCE PREMIUM POOL HB0

2 00 STATE OF WYOMING 0LSO Medical malpractice insurance pool; findings; purpose. (a) The legislature finds that there is a medical malpractice insurance crisis in Wyoming that is causing physicians' professional insurance premiums to increase to the point that some physicians practicing in some medical subspecialties are unable to afford insurance premium increases and are closing their practices and leaving, or contemplating closing their practices and leaving, the state. The loss of those physicians will, or may, result, in decreased availability of adequate medical care for Wyoming citizens throughout the state. The legislature further finds that Wyoming, as a demographically frontier state, has difficulty recruiting sufficient numbers of physicians to practice in more rural areas of the state. (b) It is the purpose of this article to attempt: 0 (i) To retain physicians who may otherwise close their practices in Wyoming because of the cost of medical malpractice insurance; HB0

3 00 STATE OF WYOMING 0LSO-0 (ii) To maintain an adequate number of physicians in the state to meet the needs of Wyoming citizens, particularly those citizens who could not otherwise afford or obtain necessary medical care Medical malpractice insurance pool; creation; duties of state treasurer and insurance commissioner; terms of assistance; recoupment. (a) There is created a medical malpractice insurance premium pool account within the trust and agency fund. The account and any investment income earned from the account shall be held in trust and invested and reinvested by the state treasurer pursuant to W.S. --. (b) The insurance commissioner shall: (i) Examine premiums for each medical specialty 0 or subspecialty in each of the states surrounding Wyoming and calculate the average of those rates for each medical specialty or subspecialty; HB0

4 00 STATE OF WYOMING 0LSO-0 (ii) Develop and make available application forms for medical malpractice insurance premium assistance under this section. (c) Any physician who has been licensed and practicing in the state for not less than one () year may apply to the commissioner for assistance in paying the physician's medical malpractice insurance premium. As a condition of receiving assistance under this section, the physician shall enter into a contract with the state, wherein the physician shall agree: (i) To practice in Wyoming for the entire period of the contract for which he will receive assistance with his insurance premium under this section in his area of medical specialty or subspecialty; 0 (ii) To provide medical care for the entire period of the contract to any Wyoming resident qualified under the Wyoming Medical Assistance and Services Act, the Wyoming Health Insurance Pool Act or the Wyoming uninsured child health insurance program who seeks medical care which the physician is qualified to provide. HB0

5 00 STATE OF WYOMING 0LSO-0 (d) The commissioner shall compare the insurance premium of a physician who meets the requirements specified in subsection (c) of this section with the average premium calculated under paragraph (b)(i) of this section for the physician's medical specialty or subspecialty. If the physician's insurance premium is higher than the average calculated under paragraph (b)(i) of this section, the commissioner may, to the extent funding is available, pay any amount of the physician's insurance that is in excess of the average calculated under paragraph (b)(i) of this section, from the account established by this section. In no case shall the commissioner pay any portion of a physician's insurance premium that is less than the average calculated under paragraph (b)(i) of this section. (e) Any physician who receives assistance with his medical malpractice insurance premium under this section and who fails or refuses to fulfill the terms of the contract required under subsection (c) of this section, 0 shall be in default. The commissioner shall obtain the assistance of the attorney general in recouping the amount of assistance provided under the contract. HB0

6 00 STATE OF WYOMING 0LSO-0 Section. There is appropriated from the budget reserve account to the medical malpractice insurance premium pool account within the trust and agency fund, ten million dollars ($,000,000.00) to implement the purposes of this act, including payment of physicians' qualified medical malpractice insurance premiums and administrative costs incurred by the insurance commissioner in the implementation of the act. Section. W.S. --0 and --0 are repealed effective June 0, 00. Section. This act is effective July, 00. (END) HB0