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Ohio Has Fewer Baby Delivery Doctors

03/24/2008 10:36:12


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Five years after a law trying to reduce the malpractice rates went into effect, Ohio has fewer doctors who deliver babies than at the height of protests about high costs.    

According to an AP analysis of State Medical Board numbers, Ohio had 1,327 doctors listing obstetrics and gynecology as their primary specialty at the end of 2007 -- a 5 percent decrease from 2002. The overall number of doctors in Ohio rose during the same time -- from about 28,000 to about 30,000. Those figures represent all doctors and not just those in high-risk specialties.    

A Republican-sponsored 2003 law caps most jury awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases at $350,000 but allows up to one million dollars in cases with multiple victims and injuries considered catastrophic.

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