House GOP targets malpractice legislation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some House Republicans are making another run at legislation granting the Department of Insurance more oversight over medical malpractice insurers. The legislation, which House Insurance Policy Committee Chairman Brian Yates intends to file today, would require medical malpractice insurers to submit more detailed information to the department. It would give the department power to reject medical malpractice insurance rate increase of more than 25 percent a year. It also would require insurers to give 60 days' notice to consumers before charging an assessment to help cover losses, raising base rates by more than 20 percent or refusing to renew policies. The House passed similar -- and in some cases, stricter -- provisions each of the past two years, but those bills failed in the Senate. Yates said he talked with senators and the Insurance Department before putting together this year's version.

Supporters of the insurance oversight legislation have touted it as a companion to a bill signed into law last year that placed new limits on medical malpractice and personal injury lawsuits.

In both efforts, lawmakers are looking for ways to try to hold down increases in medical malpractice premiums charged to doctors and other medical providers.

Some critics of the lawsuit legislation have argued that the best way of holding down malpractice premiums is through more government regulation.