TITLE 18

Insurance Code

Insurance

CHAPTER 68. Health-Care Medical Negligence Insurance and Litigation

Subchapter IV. Reporting and Review of Claims

§ 6820. Reports; contents; when due.

(a) Every insurance carrier providing medical negligence coverage and who pays any amount for insurance coverage for any medical negligence claim shall file a report with the Commissioner within 60 days following the final disposition by agreement, settlement, order, adjudication, or otherwise of such medical negligence claim against the insurance carrier’s insured. Such report shall include the following:

(1) The name of the insured.

(2) A detailed statement of the medical negligence claim asserted against the insured.

(3) A statement detailing the result or final disposition of the claim against the insured, including disclosure of the manner of the resolution or disposition of such claim, the amount ordered, adjudged or agreed to be paid by or on behalf of the insured, the amount paid by such insurance carrier on behalf of the insured as part of that settlement, adjudication or order and the total amount paid by such insurance carrier for attorney’s fees, costs and expenses incurred on behalf of the insured.

(b) Except as otherwise required by this section or § 6821 of this title, information reported to the Commissioner shall be kept confidential, shall not be subject to disclosure to the public pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, Chapter 100 of Title 29, or for any other reason, and shall not be subject to subpoena or any other legal process.

(c) A standard form to be used by insurance carriers making reports pursuant to this section shall be created jointly by the Commissioner and the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.

(d) The Commissioner shall, on an annual basis, submit to the General Assembly a report that shall not disclose any personal information but which shall provide the following aggregated statistical information:

(1) The number of separate medical negligence claims resolved or disposed of by agreement, by order, or by adjudication during the immediately preceding calendar year;

(2) The type of medical negligence claim made;

(3) The average amount paid in settlement of each such claim or the average amount ordered to be paid; and

(4) The average amount paid by insurance carriers for attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses incurred in defense of such claims.

Following its submission to the General Assembly, the Commissioner shall make the report submitted pursuant to subsection (d) of this section available to the public and to any medical negligence insurance carrier.

60 Del. Laws, c. 373, §  171 Del. Laws, c. 373, §  375 Del. Laws, c. 109, §  177 Del. Laws, c. 319, §  1

§ 6821. Disciplinary action.

(a) The Commissioner shall forward the name of every health-care provider against whom a settlement is made or judgment is rendered under this chapter to the appropriate agency for licensure or professional registration and examination for review of the fitness of the health-care provider to practice the profession. In each case involving review of a health-care provider’s fitness to practice under this chapter, the agency shall have the power, in appropriate cases, to take the following disciplinary action:

(1) Censure, public or private;

(2) Imposition of probation for determinate period;

(3) Suspension of the health-care provider’s license for a determinate period;

(4) Revocation of the license; or

(5) In the instance of institutional or corporate providers, the ordering of temporary or permanent cessation of the particular program, procedure or service resulting in the claim or judgment, and/or the ordering, monitoring and evaluation of corrective action necessary to bring such activity into compliance with contemporary standards.

(b) Review of the health-care provider’s fitness to practice shall be conducted in accordance with the applicable procedures set forth in Title 16 or 24, or other applicable provisions, and shall include a determination of whether a provider has been shown to be unfit to continue the practice of the profession because of a series of actions presumed to be medical negligence, because of verdicts or settlements against the provider, or because of a single case in which the act or omission is considered to include gross negligence on the provider’s part.

60 Del. Laws, c. 373, §  170 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  171 Del. Laws, c. 373, §  3