The Cooperative of American Physicians and ProAssurance Partner to Offer California Hospitals Groundbreaking Liability Protection
CAPAssurance Program for Hospitals Combines Financial Strength with Provider Expertise
LOS ANGELES (March 21, 2013) – The Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc. (CAP) and ProAssurance Corporation, a specialty writer of professional liability insurance, are partnering to offer a new liability protection product, CAPAssurance, designed to meet the unique needs of hospitals and other medical facilities in California.
“California’s regional and community hospitals and other healthcare facilities face a growing and expensive set of liabilities requiring creative solutions. CAP, as a California-based physician organization with deep medical professional liability experience, understands that meeting these needs requires a partner with broad experience in writing hospitals and facilities, all backed by unquestioned financial strength,” said James L. Weidner, Chief Executive Officer of CAP. He went on to say, “ProAssurance, an NYSE listed company with an ‘A’ rating and rock-solid balance sheet, meets all the qualifications we were looking for when we set out to establish this innovative partnership.”
“We are excited to join forces with CAP to offer this new program. CAP’s demonstrated track record of long-term success and its experience in California are among the key reasons we decided to partner with CAP,” said W. Stancil Starnes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ProAssurance. Starnes also said, “For nearly 40 years CAP has been working with physicians to help them lower risk, mitigate exposure, and provide the highest quality legal support services when a claim is filed. There is no better partner for ProAssurance in developing and offering this product than CAP.”
CAPAssurance will use the same CAP Claims Services professionals who have earned the respect of health care providers – and opposing counsel – in thousands of medical professional liability claims throughout California. Weidner added, “The difference that CAPAssurance will bring to the hospital market is CAP’s decades of understanding what individual physicians need to care for patients plus ProAssurance’s ability to provide a broad range of risk-sharing options.”
“As the nation’s health care system aligns physicians and hospitals ever more closely, each needs to anticipate
how the other must respond to the options available in this new era of patient health,” said John E. Ingram, M.D., Chair and President of CAP. Dr. Ingram also said, “CAPAssurance will be able to speak the language of physicians and hospitals. We expect everyone to benefit from that joint experience.”
Just as patient safety tops the list of any hospital administrator’s priorities, so too is it a core value of CAPAssurance. That is why the CAPAssurance program offers the assistance of seasoned risk managers to work with hospital staff professionals to prevent claims from ever occurring.
“CAPAssurance provides the perfect solution to California hospitals. Combining the national financial resources of ProAssurance with the local knowledge of CAP makes this a compelling choice for small to mid-sized facilities,” concluded Starnes.
About the Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc.
The Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc. was established in 1975 by a group of California physicians to manage the escalating cost of medical professional liability coverage. Two years later, CAP formed the Mutual Protection Trust, which today provides protection to nearly 12,000 of California’s finest physicians and which has earned an “A+” (Superior) rating from A.M. Best since 2006. CAP also offers medical professional liability protection to physicians practicing in large groups through the Cooperative of American Physicians Insurance Company, Inc., a Risk Retention Group. CAPIC-RRG is rated “A-” (Excellent) by A.M. Best. Based in Los Angeles, CAP also has offices in San Diego, Orange County, Sacramento, and Palo Alto. For more information, visit www.CAPphysicians.com.
About ProAssurance
ProAssurance Corporation is an industry-leading specialty insurance company with extensive expertise in medical professional liability, products liability for life sciences, and the medical technology industry and legal professional liability. ProAssurance is recognized as one of the top performing insurance companies in America by virtue of our inclusion in the Ward’s 50 for the past six years and is consistently ranked as a top performing property casualty insurer in Moody’s Yearly Statistical Handbook. ProAssurance is rated “A” (Strong) by Fitch Ratings; ProAssurance Group is rated “A” (Excellent) by A.M. Best. For more information, visit www.proassurance.com.
For more information contact:
Mary Crystal
Director, Corporate Communications
800.252.7706 • 213.473.8734 • mcrystal@CAPphysicians.com
Frank B. O’Neil
Sr. Vice President, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations
800.282.6242 • 205.877.4461 • foneil@ProAssurance.com
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