Posted on 09/22/2003 6:10:35 AM PDT by bedolido
Stanley Biber, one of the few doctors in the nation who performs sex-reassignment surgeries, is having trouble buying malpractice insurance.
"I guess they think I'm too old," said Biber, 80.
Medical coverage companies consider any practicing surgeon older than 65 to fall into a high-risk category, said Karen Reese, an independent agent with Houston-based Professional Medical Insurance Services, a brokerage company that matches clients and insurance companies.
Reese said she worked with nine companies to try to help Biber, whose base of operations is Mount San Rafael Hospital.
"All of the markets I checked with who would have insured him said his age and types of operations he performs made him too much of a risk," she said.
Biber's previous insurer, St. Paul's Insurance Co., has moved out of state, and he has found no replacement.
"I might be able to pick up some insurance just to keep my (medical) practice going, but I can't do any surgeries without it," said Biber, who has been practicing for 50 years.
"For my transsexual work, they want to put me into a high-risk category. The premium would be $200,000 to $300,000 a year. How in the hell am I going to be able to pay that?" Biber said.
He said he had paid St. Paul $40,000 a year.
Reese said insurers considered the fact that Biber had never been sued by any of his former sex change patients or had any die on the operating table. Still, only one company offered to insure him as a general practitioner surgeon, at $75,000 a year "just starting out."
Biber said he hasn't operated on anyone for the past 2 1/2 months because companies are reluctant to offer him malpractice insurance.
"I'm in tremendous physical condition, the best physical condition you can imagine. I work out every day and I've had no physical problems," Biber said.
"I'm still hoping I can pick up some insurance so I can continue working."
How the heck could one establish "standard of care" for this sort of mutilation?
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