Arrive Magazine - January/February, 2009

Prescription for Success

Continuing problems with medical liability insurance premiums have forced physicians across the country to make tough

decisions about the future of their practices, in some cases to discontinue them. To combat the problems of stability

and availability of medical liability insurance in South Carolina and to provide for the needs of its physician-members,

the South Carolina Medical Association had a vision to form its own medical malpractice insurance company. They

turned to Stevens & Lee for help.

Stevens & Lee’s insurance and healthcare lawyers and consultants assisted the South Carolina Medical Association

in designing and creating the South Carolina Physician Assurance Company, an innovative non-traditional

insurance company founded by doctors and directed by doctors.

For more than 20 years, our lawyers and consultants have worked with clients in the formation and development of captive insurance companies, risk retention groups and self insurance trusts and have assisted in meeting their ongoing needs. Today, these self-insurance vehicles insure more than 2000 doctors and other health care providers across the country. Many of these insurance programs, including the South Carolina Physician Assurance Company, feature innovative risk management programs designed to improve patient outcomes, increase overall patient satisfaction, reduce risk and make insurance more accessible and affordable.

Stevens & Lee knows what it takes to craft successful self-insurance and loss control programs for healthcare clients. Our multidisciplinary team of lawyers, many of whom are former healthcare executives, regulators and practitioners, and risk management professionals, who include M.D.s, Ph.D.s, R.N.s, Pharm.D.s and psychologists, understand our clients’ opportunities and challenges from their perspective. This unique combination of occupational and educational diversity is the prescription for success.

For more information, please contact Scott Spencer or James Saxton at 800.510.0274.

Among the 200 largest law firms in the nation, Stevens & Lee is part of a multidisciplinary professional services platform which includes a health care risk consulting business, an investment bank, a money manager, an insurance risk consulting business, a financial advisory business, federal and state government affairs units and a government incentives and consulting business.