The Florida Auditor General's Office recently released a critical report that found the state's Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) is failing to adequately monitor the medical malpractice insurance market by not ensuring that all insurers and self-insured health-care providers are submitting information on closed claims. The auditor general's report came as the OIR published a report that shows the market financial trends have grown increasingly positive after the enactment of the 2003 reforms. Among other things, the report found that between Jan. 1, 2004, and Oct. 1, 2005, 18 new companies have entered the market.

Claim Reporting

One of the major findings coming out of the 2003 med-mal reforms was that, in some ways, lawmakers were working in the dark due to a lack of solid data. As a result, lawmakers focused on such topics as rates and litigation, which are typically the starting point for all legislative reform efforts. After a regular session and three special sessions, lawmakers finally agreed on a number of issues, which included a health-care-provider backed cap on damages. Specifically, lawmakers placed a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages against individual physicians and a $1 million cap on non-economic damages that in certain cases could be collected against multiple physicians.