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Doctor leaves over malpractice coverage

By ADELLA HARDING, Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 6:19 PM PST

Surgeon Dr. John Kearney sits at his desk in the office he will soon vacate to return to California.

ELKO - Surgeon Dr. John Kearney is seeking a six-month leave of absence to return to California, and malpractice insurance coverage is to blame.

Kearney said Monday he is hoping Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital's board will grant him the leave at its Jan. 7 meeting so he may be able to return to Elko - if he can work out insurance.

Until then, his coverage to practice in Nevada runs out Dec. 31, and his insurance carrier, SCPIE Indemnity Co., is refusing to cover his work in Nevada after that date.

"We no longer wish to provide coverage outside California," underwriter William Highton wrote to Kearney.

"I was very surprised," Kearney said of the letter.

He said the October letter didn't offer him any appeal option, but he made appeals, anyway, including contacting an SCPIE board member to at least work out an arrangement so he could continue coverage with the company by returning to California.

That way he doesn't have to pay for "tail" coverage, which Kearney said wasn't feasible at this point, with a cost of roughly $100,000. Tail coverage is coverage for past cases in the 23 years he has had SCPIE policies.

In other words, if he dropped his SCPIE coverage and purchased a Nevada policy, he would have to have the "tail" coverage, since a new company wouldn't take on the past cases.

"With the policy in force, I don't have to pay the tail," he said.

Kearney, who is chief of staff at the Elko hospital, said his only solution is to return to the practice he had in San Bernadino, Calif., before coming to Elko six years ago. He said his former partner there is ready to slow down.

Kearney said he likes Elko and hopes to return, but he doesn't feel he has an option at this point.

"I would really like to come back. That's why I requested a leave of absence."

His departure leaves three general surgeons, Dr. Christopher Ward, Dr. John Tyburczy and Dr. Robert Brownlee.

"They'll all be a little busier," said Kearney, who is in the process of notifying patients he is leaving.

He won't see any new patients after Dec. 31, and he will finish any follow-ups by mid-January, when he will move back to California. He said his office in Elko will stay open for a while longer, however.

Kearney said he has applications with four companies for coverage, including GE Medical Protective, The Doctors Company, Medical Liability Association of Nevada and Nevada Mutual Professional Liability.

He said what he has heard so far indicates they aren't willing to underwrite both his Nevada and California practices, and he needs the California coverage because of 17 years in practice there.

Kearney foresees similar problems for other physicians who brought coverage with them into Nevada, and now the companies are separating themselves from the state because of the risk.

"Tort reform still is not adequate," Kearney said.

The Nevada Legislature passed a bill in a special session earlier this year to try to stem the tide of doctors leaving Nevada over malpractice insurance problems, especially obstetrician-gynecologists.

But Kearney said he learned from SCPIE that there are a couple of loopholes in the tort reform that still make it too risky to cover doctors in Nevada.

Kerry Aguirre, the hospital's director of community relations and business development, said Monday that the malpractice insurance problem for Kearney comes just when she believes the hospital is making progress with local physicians.

"We're recruiting and beginning to grow and getting some issues with physicians worked out, and then to have that thrown into the pot. That's what we're concerned about," she said.

Kearney said he maintained courtesy privileges at St. Bernadine's Medical Center and expects to reapply for privileges at other neighboring hospitals.

And he said he expects to be busier back in California, doing more vascular surgery, which is a specialty, and kidney transplants, which he doesn't do in Elko.

He said he's had only one claim against his SCPIE coverage in 23 years.

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