HARTFORD, Conn., May 15 – In what the Insurance Department is touting as a step in the right direction, MedPro has requested approval for a 24 percent rate decrease for its medical malpractice insurance rates.

MedPro has been operating in Connecticut since 1997. In 2005, GE Insurance Solutions sold MedPro to Berkshire Hathaway.

In a statement, recently-appointed Insurance Commissioner Thomas R. Sullivan said, This is a positive step for the Connecticut medical malpractice insurance marketplace. Any time competition can be leveraged, consumers benefit.

He did note, however, that concerns regarding medical malpractice are far from resolved. Sullivan said that while this is clearly good news for doctors and hospitals, the medical malpractice insurance problem is not over. Legal expenses, reinsurance costs, and increasing indemnity payments continue to make medical malpractice insurance a particularly risky line of business. Nonetheless, this is good news and a positive first step towards creating an environment that fosters competition.

Amy Lazzaro, chief of staff at the Insurance Department, noted that the state is not out of the woods yet with respect to medical malpractice affordability issues, but that the rate filing is being viewed as a step in the right direction.

In 2004, MedPro had increased rates by nearly 90 percent, according to a story that appeared in the Hartford Courant.

Speaking to why the company now feels that it can offer a significant decrease in rates, Lazzaro cited the 2005 sale of MedPro from GE to Berkshire Hathaway. MedPros previous owner, GE, was reluctant to allocate capital to the medical malpractice line of business, Lazzaro said via e-mail. In 2005, MedPro was purchased by Berkshire Hathaway, which is more willing to accept properly-underwritten insurance risk.

The department statement notes that the filing still awaits approval, [h]owever, based on information gathered by the department so far, it appears that MedPro has the financial and actuarial analysis to support [its] request.