In Pennsylvania, a medical professional fund, known as the MCARE Fund, has been established. This Fund is used to pay malpractice claims against medical providers in excess of their basic insurance coverage. The MCARE Fund is funded by an assessment on each participating healthcare provider.
In 2003, Pennsylvania enacted an abatement law to reduce or eliminate MCARE providers’ required contributions to the MCARE Fund. To fund the abatement program, Pennsylvania established a special account known as the HCPR Account. The HCPR Account was, in turn, funded by increased cigarette taxes and a traffic violation surcharge.
From 2004 to 2007, Pennsylvania appropriated $737,000,000 to the HCPR Account. Pennsylvania, however, failed to transfer from these appropriations a sum that ranged from $446,000,000 to $616,000,000 to fund the MCARE Fund.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society sued the Pennsylvania agency responsible for the HCPR Account. The Commonwealth Court recently ruled in favor of The Medical Society. The Court decided that Pennsylvania is required to transfer all of the allocated money from the HCPR Account to the MCARE Fund.
In terms of the so-called malpractice crisis, the Court’s decision makes an interesting statement. Pennsylvania’s position in this lawsuit was that the MCARE Fund can meet its current obligations without the transfer of the disputed funds. This is consistent with the statistics that show that malpractice cases in Pennsylvania have been decreasing, not increasing.
