JACKSON - If the anxiety of preparing to give birth to her first child wasn't enough, Ambur Peterson also is dealing with this: On Saturday, three weeks before her due date, her physician is closing his practice.
Dr. Mark Blackwood and his partner, Dr. Bradley Baugh, will lose their medical malpractice insurance coverage this weekend. And, like hundreds of their colleagues in Mississippi, they've been unable to find a company that will write another policy.
"Essentially, I've lost my job," Blackwood said Wednesday.
What makes the situation so critical for Peterson and other pregnant women in Cleveland, a town of about 14,000, is that they're left with no one locally to deliver their babies. Several other Mississippi towns are facing similar scenarios.
"I'm kind of shell-shocked," Peterson said. "I have no clue. I know I'm having a baby, I just don't know where."
Peterson's predicament highlights a growing crisis in Mississippi in which doctors, particularly those in specialties such as obstetrics/gynecology and neurosurgery, are limiting their practices, leaving the state or retiring because they can't find affordable medical malpractice insurance.
Medical liability coverage has become so scarce that Gov. Ronnie Musgrove has said he'll convene a special legislative session in August to deal with the issue.
Last month, the American Medical Association released a 50-state analysis that identified Mississippi as one of 12 states with the greatest lack of coverage. The other states were Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.
The Mississippi State Medical Association paints a bleak picture for the future of health care in the state unless the Legislature enacts reforms to civil justice laws that doctors consider to be slanted toward trial lawyers.
Dr. Hugh Gamble of Greenville, the medical association's past president, estimates the state could lose 10 percent of its 4,000 or so practicing doctors to departure or retirement by year's end.
The MSMA cites the state's volatile legal climate and reputation for "jackpot justice" as the reasons many insurance carriers have stopped doing business in Mississippi.
Since the first of the year, five lawsuits against physicians and hospitals have resulted in verdicts totaling some $28 million, according to the MSMA. In recent years, eye-popping, $100 million-plus verdicts and settlements have given Mississippi a reputation as a haven for trial lawyers.
Someone very familiar with that notoriety is state Insurance Commissioner George Dale, who said he's had little or no luck creating a market for malpractice insurance.
Five years ago, Mississippi had 37 companies writing medical malpractice policies. Today, there are a few at most, and rates have skyrocketed.
For example, premiums for OB/GYNs can be as much as $125,000 a year, according to the MSMA.
Dale is scheduled to speak next week to a 26-member House and Senate committee that's exploring whether to revise the state's civil justice system.
At previous hearings, MSMA representatives have said they'd like to see the Legislature enact reforms that would prohibit so-called "venue shopping," make liability in a lawsuit commensurate with responsibility and place limits on punitive damages and lawyers' fees.
Lawyers have said the dwindling number of insurance companies willing to write malpractice policies has more to do with bad investments and the economic downturn than with Mississippi's legal system.
Tort reform proposals failed during the regular legislative session earlier this year, as measures died in judiciary committees of both the House and Senate.
Dale said he'll suggest to lawmakers that they invite insurance carriers to appear before them and ask what it will take for them to renew business in Mississippi.
"There's far too much rhetoric," Dale said. "While everyone's arguing about who's at fault, there's not enough emphasis being placed on what to do."
No one needs to tell that to Peterson, whose husband works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture about 40 minutes from their Mississippi Delta home.
She said her neighbor has offered to drive her the 110 miles to Memphis to see a new OB/GYN.
"A month and a half from now - as long as everything goes well - I'm sure I'll say it wasn't that big a deal," she said. "But at this place in time, I'm kind of grasping. I'm a little freaked out."
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