Chairman's Message - West Virginia Mutual Insurance Company / "Physicians Insuring Physicians."

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July 17, 2008

Unity. Defined as, “something whole or complete formed by combining or joining separate things or entities.” Unity necessitates that in order for any entity to be whole, the individual units must be joined together. This is exactly what the physicians in West Virginia have done over the past five years. As a result of unity, tort reforms were passed in West Virginia in 2003 that combined the best reforms of several states in our country. The tort reforms in West Virginia now make our state one of the best.

Our legal climate has improved dramatically. Compared to pre-reform years, the number of lawsuits has been cut in half. Physicians are now able to concentrate on the practice of medicine rather than whether malpractice insurance is available and, if so, whether or not we can afford thecoverage.

Your Mutual has been formed and is currently insuring more than seven out of ten WV physicians who purchase malpractice insurance from the commercial market. Your company is financially sound and has been able to provide unprecedented premium relief for the past three years. All is well in the state of West Virginia – today.

Because of the hard work of all of us, out-of-state insurance companies now view West Virginia as an area where they can make a profit. Risk Retention Groups and stockholder-owned companies have come to West Virginia attempting to attract West Virginia physicians to place our trust and money
with them. Profits made by these out-of-state companies will likely be sent outside West Virginia to enrich either the coffers of these Groups or the return on investment of the stockholders. Your premium dollars will not be used to continue to stabilize and improve the insurance climate that we have created through the formation of the Mutual and the success of our tort reforms.

Let’s not be fooled. We all remember what has happened to the out-of-state commercial insurance companies over the past thirty years. For some reason, either business or financial, while insuring many of us, the following companies stopped writing malpractice insurance in West Virginia: Aetna, CNA, St. Paul/MMI, PHICO (insolvency), ICA (insolvency) and PIE (insolvency).

The answer to medical malpractice insurance coverage for West Virginia physicians is the West Virginia Mutual Insurance Company. Your Company was formed to be owned by West Virginia physicians and to insure West Virginia physicians. Unity is what brought us this far and improved the climate in our great state, and unity is what is needed now to protect and preserve your Mutual. Joined together we will succeed. Divided we could easily return to the days when access to malpractice insurance was limited and affordability was nowhere to be found.

We are Physicians Insuring Physicians. Let’s remain united.

Sincerely,


Robert L. Ghiz, M.D.