Nevada doctors lose insurance subsidy plan

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Proposed subsidies of up to $30,000 to doctors to help pay their soaring medical malpractice insurance premiums were scrapped Wednesday in the Senate Finance Committee.

The panel stripped the subsidies out of SB250 at the request of its author, Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno. Townsend said Tuesday that several other bills that have been passed or are near approval should help stabilize doctors' insurance rates. The deletion erased the need for a $3 million appropriation.

Also dropped was a requirement that the state Board of Medical Examiners move its headquarters from Reno to Las Vegas in 2007, when the lease on the present offices expires.

The board has been a target of criticism from doctors in Las Vegas, who say it hasn't done enough to alleviate Nevada's medical malpractice insurance crisis. Southern Nevada doctors were especially hard hit.

Keith Lee, lobbyist for the medical examiners board, said the board intends to discuss setting up a branch office in southern Nevada. The board had an office in Las Vegas but it was closed several years ago due to lack of activity.

Townsend had said the board should be located in Las Vegas, where 70 percent of the state's physicians practice. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, questioned the wisdom of moving the office to southern Nevada.