South Carolina Medical Association Launches Medical Liability Company

The South Carolina Medical Association launched its new subsidiary, the South Carolina Physician Assurance Co. The new insurance company will provide medical malpractice coverage to qualifying physicians who are members of the SCMA and to their extenders and the entities associated with them.

Physician Assurance will use a risk management program involving traditional areas of risk reduction, such as patient involvement and satisfaction, communication, documentation, and expectation management training. The company will also use event management, aggressive litigation strategies and best practices established through data collection, to lessen a physician’s chance of experiencing an event that leads to a malpractice claim. Physician Assurance requires insureds to participate in the risk management program as a requisite for coverage.

Physician Assurance, the wholly-owned SCMA subsidiary, is located in South Carolina and governed by physicians and insurance professionals. The officers of the company are: Gregory Tarasidis, MD, Chairman; Todd K. Atwater, President; and Marjorie L. Heggie, Secretary and Treasurer. The remaining initial board members are: Gerald E. Harmon, MD; H. Timberlake Pearce, Jr., MD; and Boyce G. Tollison, MD.

Source: South Carolina Medical Association