PREMIUM SUBSIDIES FOR PHYSICIANS:

The first checks from the state to help high risk New Jersey doctors pay malpractice insurance premiums have been sent. The subsidies are being distributed to eligible medical practitioners under the Medical Malpractice Liability Insurance Premium Assistance Fund. The subsidy payments, nearly $11,000 each to 1,200 physicians, implement a section of the New Jersey Medical Care Access and Responsibility and Patients First Act of 2004, which seeks to protect medical access for New Jersey residents in part by offering financial assistance to physicians in certain high risk specialties. Practitioners and healthcare providers in obstetrics/gynecology, neurosurgery and diagnostic radiology were eligible to apply for subsidies. “It is important for all medical practitioners to understand that this is the first year of a three-year program,” said Banking and Insurance Acting Commissioner Donald Bryan. He said that physicians who were not eligible for the subsidy this year will be included in the review next year and some of those practitioners may be found to be eligible.