The AMA’s April 2026 Policy Research Perspective report confirmed that medical liability premiums rose for the seventh consecutive year in 2025, with 39.9% of premiums increasing – the highest rate since 2005 outside the 2024 peak of 49.8%. Increases were concentrated in Pennsylvania, where 92.2% of reported premiums rose, and New York, where 95.7% increased. Underlying the premium trajectory is a severity crisis: median awards for major malpractice cases more than doubled in 2025, verdicts above $10 million have more than doubled since 2015, and S&P Global found that physician-related payments of $500,000 or more accounted for 36.5% of all payments in 2024 – a new high. The Doctors Company itself has described the current environment as “an era marked by nuclear malpractice verdicts.” Its own commissioned research estimated that economic and social inflation added $4 billion in insured losses and expenses to the physician-focused segment over the decade ending in 2024.
The Doctors Company closes $1.3 billion ProAssurance acquisition
