Last Updated: Nov 1, 2021
The Pennsylvania Insurance Department announced that the annual MCARE assessment to be levied for calendar year 2022 is 12 percent applied to the prevailing primary premium for each participating health care provider.
Under MCARE, the Insurance Department is required annually to set the MCARE assessment. The MCARE assessment is a percentage of the Pennsylvania Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association (JUA) rates as approved by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. For 2022, the assessment rate is 12 percent. Previously, for every year since 2017, the rate had been at 19 percent.
For those health care providers that have medical professional liability insurance in the private market, the insurer calculates bills, collects and remits the assessment to MCARE for each health care provider it insures. Self-insured health care providers perform the same functions on their own behalf.
If a health care provider (which includes physicians) is licensed in Pennsylvania and 50 percent or more of the patients to whom the provider renders healthcare services are in Pennsylvania, participation in MCARE is mandatory. If a provider is licensed in Pennsylvania and less than 50 percent but more than zero percent of patients to whom the provide renders healthcare services are in Pennsylvania, the provider may choose to participate in MCARE. However, if the provider opts out of participating in MCARE, the provider must still meet the mandatory insurance requirements of Act 13 of 2002.
A copy of the notice, which was published in the Oct. 30, 2021 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin, can be accessed here.