While obstetricians and other delivering providers may become participants in the Birth-Injury Program, all other licensed Virginia physicians also play a key role. The Virginia General Assembly established the Program to help hold down malpractice insurance rates for all physicians, which studies show it has accomplished.* As a part of the original statute (§38.2-5020), when deemed necessary by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance, all non-participating licensed physicians in Virginia, of any specialty, are assessed an annual $300 fee to help fund the Program. (Other times participant fees are the only income, no state general funds are provided to the Birth-Injury Program) This physician assessment has been implemented about half of the years since the Program’s creation, and currently is in place. Whenever the physician assessment is implemented, an assessment on liability insurers operating in Virginia also is implemented. Physician assessments currently provide less than 20 percent of the Program’s annual income.
Assessment Process
When in effect, the annual assessment process begins September 30 for the upcoming calendar year. On that date, by law, the Program downloads all eligible licensed physician names and addresses from the State database. These names and addresses must be utilized for mailing assessment notices to physicians. Three notices are sent, with the first mailed in October for the upcoming year. A second notice is mailed around February, and a third, by certified mail, around May.
(Note: All licensed physicians are required to notify the State Board of Medicine of an address change within 30-days of the change.)
Physician Exemptions
State law allows for five exemptions to paying the physician assessment. They are:
- A physician who is employed by the Commonwealth of Virginia or the federal government and whose income from professional fees is less than 10% of my annual salary.
- A physician who is enrolled in a full-time graduate medical education program accredited by the American Council for Graduate Medical Education.
- A physician who has retired from active clinical practice.
- A physician whose active clinical practice is limited to the provision of services, voluntarily and without compensation, to any patient of any clinic organized in whole or in part for the delivery of health care services without charge.
- A physician who does not practice medicine in Virginia.
- A physician may claim one of the above exemptions by completing the Birth-Injury Program’s Physician Exemption Form, having it notarized and returning it to the Program during the assessment process.
Enforcement
The Birth-Injury Program may to turn over the names of any non-responding physicians to the State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance for enforcement. The State Corporation Commission may impose a fine of up to $5,000.
