As Doctor's Insurance Rates Go Up, So Do Perks For Insurance Executives
As more information is made public during the hearings for ISMIE, the state's largest medical malpractice insurer, the lengths to which the insurer will go to mask the reasons for skyrocketing malpractice rates become clear. ISMIE is currently before the Illinois Department of Insurance in an effort to increase their rates, only allowable with the Department's permission under the new medical malpractice law.
Testimony and records show that while ISMIE was raising premium costs by 120 percent, forcing some doctors from practicing in rural areas, they continued to extend big perks to ISMIE executives including:
* Big pay raises, including one that boosted [CEO] Lerner's 2004 yearly salary to nearly $1 million, the firm's annual reports show.
* Low-interest mortgage loans, including a $995,000 loan on Lerner's
4,800-square-foot home in Glencoe, a wealthy Chicago suburb, Cook County property records show.
* Nearly $5 million in deferred compensation to Dr. Don Udstuen, a top
lobbyist who pleaded guilty to taking part in a kickback scheme connected in testimony to former Gov. George Ryan.
Not to mention the huge amounts spent on political campaigns, also revealed in ISMIE records. Consider the statement by St. Clair County Medical Society's President Dr. Stephen Burger: "I just don't think [ISMIE] did a very good [public relations] job campaign to notify the general public, specifically the doctors, on how the operation actually works."
No kidding--how about execs stuffing their pockets without disclosing their "operations" to not only the public, but doctors as well.
In what hopefully with be the final blow to ISMIE's request to increase rates yet again, records also show that ISMIE exaggerated medical malpractice claims by including any policyholder that merely testified at trial as a "claim." Can ISMIE explain how this is misleading? Of course not.
Read more here.