Report: Despite Malpractice Worries, Number of Ohio Doctors Growing

Despite claims that growing malpractice insurance premiums are forcing doctors to leave Ohio or retire early, the number of doctors in the state actually has gone up slightly the past three years, The Cincinnati Enquirer has reported.

The number of doctors holding active Ohio medical licenses was 33,917 in 2003, up 62 from 2001, while the number of new licenses issued increased to 1,660 in 2003, up from 1,583 in 2001, the newspaper said. The number of doctors with an Ohio address totaled 24,833 in 2003, up 200 from 2002.

“There is a malpractice issue in this state and all over the country that needs some resolution. However, the data just doesn’t translate into doctors leaving the state,” said Larry Savage, president and chief executive of Humana Health Plan of Ohio.

Since September, the Ohio State Medical Association has been running ads for the Ohio Supreme Court races that warn “rising health care costs are forcing good doctors to close their practices, leave the state or eliminate vital services.”

But records indicate that is not the case, the Enquirer said in the first day of a three-day series on medical malpractice in Ohio.
In 1970, there were 67 doctors per 100,000 Ohioans. In 2000, the number was 120, a 79 percent increase.

An Ohio Department of Insurance report lists 220 doctors who say they have quit or moved since last year.

No doctors, though, have left in 60 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and the number of doctors lost is far outweighed by new doctors.
The numbers do not tell the whole story, doctors say.

There is no indication of whether doctors are shifting specialties, or avoiding obstetrics and other high-risk occupations, said Tim Maglione, the medical association’s senior director of government relations. Nor is there any information about doctors who do not take tough cases.

A mail survey answered by 874 of 4,000 randomly selected Ohio doctors last spring found 56 percent say they have ordered more tests to reduce the chance of being sued, and nearly 48 percent plan to retire earlier because of rising liability costs.

Nearly one in four said they would limit their practices to low-risk patients within two years because of malpractice costs.

The American Medical Association said there is no national shortage of doctors, but there have been problems in some inner city and rural areas.

One big shortage is with rural family practice doctors, who usually have had low malpractice insurance rates, the group said.
Maglione admits that few Ohioans are going without care because doctors quit.

“Should we wait another five years for this to become a bigger crisis? Or should we do something now before things get worse?” he asked.
One Cincinnati doctor, Walter Matern, 65, said he retired nearly a year early rather than pay a $48,000 annual malpractice insurance bill that amounted to nearly a quarter of his gross income of $200,000. After expenses, his take home pay was about $70,000.

“To pay out nearly $50,000 just to keep practicing, well, I wasn’t bringing in that much money,” Matern said.

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Topics Ohio