"Vijay" wrote in message
snip
Is there anything they can do? Does anyone know of any other birthing
centers that faced this sort of situation and somehow remained open?
Does anyone know of any lesser-known insurance companies that might be
willing to cover them? They say they have explored all of their other
options, and none were viable.

I am planning to write to them to ask if there is anything I can do to
help. I also considered writing a letter to be distributed to all
women who are receiving prenatal care there currently to urge them to
consider a home birth attended by one of the Elizabeth Seton midwives.

If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

The birth center I'm using had a somewhat similar scare this January. They
had to let go of their malpractice insurance, because it was up to 45k per
year and the doctor herself only makes 40k per year. She was going to just
"go bare" and people were going to have to just pay out of pocket if they
wanted to use her or the birth center (she does home births as well and
supervised a nurse-midwife that does home births). As far as I understand
it, doctors are not required to have malpractice insurance--the two problems
with not having it are that health insurance companies won't cover the
services of a non-malpractice insured doctor and if the doctor was to have a
suit brought against her, she would likely be totally wiped out. Anyway, my
doctor went and lobbied at the capital about this, etc.

The resolution was that a coalition of OBs in a large nearby city formed
their own insurance company and she was able to get insurance through them.
I don't how reliable it is or how long it will last, but so far it has kept
her in my "preferred provider" directory. (The birth center itself isn't
"preferred," but people who use it still just pay out-of-network fees for
it, not completely out of pocket). Apparently, this insurance company is a
non-profit corp. and is operated as a "mutual or policyholder owned insurer"
in accordance with laws such in my state--from what I gather they put
all of the premiums into a big fund that they can use to pay any claims with
should they arise. They are officially organized and licensed in my state
and apparently they are good enough for the health insurance companies to
keep covering their doctors.

This group only operates in my state (part of how they can offer insurance
policies affordably), so it unfortunately can't help your birth center, but
I can send you the link to their website if you think it would help at
all--maybe your birth center could join up with a similar sort of effort in
your state? My state is fairly "backward" about lots of things and has been
declared a "crisis state" by the AMA because of its lack of good insurance.
There are lots of OBs who have been basically driven out of business here
and earlier this year many doctors in the state had a massive "white coat
invasion" at the capital where they lobbied and protested for legal change.
Anyway, if the docs here can find a solution that seems to be working for
them, I would imagine that there may be some similar sort of effort in New
York if someone does some digging about it. I really hope so, for your birth
center's sake (and for all of the women who won't get to birth there if they
close)!

HTH a little!

--
Em
edd 9/23/03
(34 weeks)