Senate Passage of MCARE Abatement Extension to Benefit Medical Community 

HARRISBURG –Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf said Senate approval of House Bill 2041 to extend the MCARE abatement program until December 31, 2007, will benefit health care providers and hospitals and should serve to retain Pennsylvania's reputation for high quality medical care.

The MCARE abatement program helps doctors pay a portion of their medical malpractice insurance premiums in return for an agreement to continue to practice in the commonwealth.  The three-year-old program, which is supported primarily by a 25-cent cigarette tax, would have expired at the end of this month if the extension legislation had not been passed.  The original bill would have extended the program another year, but a Senate amendment provides for a two-year extension.

The legislation will improve administration of the program and allow nursing homes to be eligible for a 50 percent abatement of their MCARE Fund payment.  The measure will also create a commission to study the future of the MCARE Fund to evaluate its projected unfunded liabilities.

Under the current program, the state pays all or part of the premiums that doctors must pay into the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Fund.  The fund helps pay toward the cost of the $500,000 in MCARE Fund coverage that the state requires each doctor to secure—in addition to the $500,000 in primary medical malpractice coverage from the private insurance market.

Greenleaf noted that the state's medical community is seeing improvements in coping with the high cost of medical malpractice insurance thanks to the patient safety and tort reform provisions of Act 13 of 2002 and the MCARE abatement program.  "This state has excellent medical facilities and physicians and the goal is to keep up the high quality of medical care that we have here," he said.

The Governor is expected to sign the legislation.