New Holding Company Prepares Arkansas Mutual for Expansion

A.M. Best Co.’s succinct announcement that Arkansas Mutual Insurance Co. had achieved an A rating was the culmination of two years of work by the Arkansas-only medical malpractice carrier to get ahead of a changing market. “This now solidifies Arkansas Mutual for decades to come,” President Corey Little said last week. “It’s not pride: It’s what happens in every state with a home-state mutual.” Arkansas Mutual was formed eight years ago to create in-state competition for the out-of-state carriers that swept in when St. Paul Cos. abandoned the med-mal market completely in 2001. After starting from scratch, Arkansas Mutual now insures about 800 physicians in the state, Little said last week. 2015 revenue will be about $4 million, he said. But during the company’s short life, the doctoring business has changed dramatically. Doctors in Arkansas as elsewhere have been leaving individual practice in droves and becoming employees of hospital-owned clinics. “When we first went to see St. Bernards, they had four hospitalists on staff,” Little said of the Jonesboro health system. “Now they have 160 employed physicians.” Similarly, CARTI — Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute Inc. — did not directly employ physicians until it acquired two physician groups, Little Rock Hematology & Oncology in December 2011 and Hematology Oncology Services of Arkansas in January 2013. Hospital bylaws typically...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news