DOCTORS FRUSTRATED OVER SUBSIDY:

Maryland doctors may not see any medical malpractice insurance rate relief for several months, even though the General Assembly approved an emergency remedy more than four months ago. A series of delays has prompted finger-pointing between Democratic lawmakers and state insurance regulators and caused headaches for doctors.

“There’s extreme frustration,” said Philip Schneider, an orthopedic surgeon in Kensington. “Many of us went ahead and paid the higher premiums with the promise that there would be relief, and it hasn’t happened yet.”

The Democrat-led General Assembly passed legislation in December that was intended to limit increases in doctors’ medical malpractice rates to 5 percent this year, rather than the 33 percent increase planned by the state’s largest insurance carrier.

Sen. Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery, a leader in the malpractice reform effort, now says the Maryland Insurance Administration has worked “to throw sand in the gears'” of efforts to put money in the hands of doctors.

Insurance Commissioner Alfred Redmer denied that assessment and said he has no authority to release the money before July 1, when cash from a new state tax on HMO premiums — approved to pay for the doctors’ relief — will be allocated to the state subsidy fund. Democratic leaders and the Medical Mutual Liability Society of Maryland, the state’s largest malpractice carrier, both dispute that interpretation.