Together We Are Stronger! The Oklahoma State Medical Association is your best and most effective advocate for you, your patients, and our profession.  In partnership with your local county medical society and the American Medical Association, OSMA is your best and most effective advocate for you, your patients, and our profession. 

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New OSMA Home for the Second Century

These are exciting times for your state medical association. As OSMA begins its second century helping Oklahoma physicians care for their patients, design and construction is beginning on a new home for the organization.

OSMA’s current headquarters was purchased by Chesapeake Energy last month and plans are underway to build a new 15,000 square feet headquarters facility at 222 NE 50th street—two blocks west of Lincoln Blvd. and NE 50th virtually debt-free.

“This is an exciting time for OSMA and our membership. Our new building puts us closer to the State Capitol and the OU Health Sciences Center,” said OSMA Immediate Past-President W.H. Oehlert, MD. “This location will allow us to better address several of our most important strategic objectives that include enhancing our legislative advocacy role and improving our relations with the academic and medical specialty communities.”

Legislative Update 04-25-08

Important TrailBlazer Information

IMPORTANT UPDATES ON MEDICAL LIABILITY INSURANCE—PHYSICIANS SHOULD ARM THEMSELVES WITH THE FACTS IN THIS DEBATE.

The Health Policy Group of the American Medical Association has just completed three Policy Research Perspectives on the market for medical liability insurance. The first report, The Impact of Liability Pressure and Caps on Damages on the Healthcare Market: An Update of Recent Literature summarizes the economic literature on the impacts of caps and concludes that there is a large and growing body of research which shows that caps on non-economic damages lead to improved patient access to care, lower medical liability premiums, and lower health care costs.

The second report Professional Liability Insurance Rates and Distribution of Rate Changes, 2003-2007, summarizes trend data from the 2000 to 2007 Medical Liability Monitor surveys of professional liability insurance premiums and finds that in many states rates have leveled off or even decreased. Decreases notwithstanding, PLI rates remain at historic highs in many areas of the country. It is available to AMA members only.

The third report, Professional Medical Liability Insurance Indemnity and Expense Payments, 1997-2006, examines Physician Association of America (PIAA) reports on claims and payment levels between 1997 and 2006. The PIAA data show that payments rose faster than inflation over that period, and the period ended with an 8.4% increase between 2005 and 2006, when a new maximum average payment of $340,769 was reached. This report is also available only to AMA members.

Each of the reports, and other research reports on the medical liability insurance market, can be found at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7800.html.