Kansas doctors hit with steeper malpractice premiums
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Rising liability insurance costs in Kansas and across the nation are prompting doctors to call on states to impose limits on the damages patients can collect in malpractice cases.
Why it matters: Groups led by the American Medical Association (AMA) say that without payout limits, physicians will relocate from high-cost states, leaving patients with fewer care options.
State of play: About 40% of medical liability premiums increased from 2024 to 2025, according to a recent analysis from the AMA.
- It marked the seventh consecutive year that premiums rose, even though the share of physicians sued fell during that time, according to a separate AMA study.
- More than half of the states have enacted malpractice payout limits to make insurance premiums more predictable.
Zoom in: Kansas was one of 11 states where at least one premium rose by 10% or more in 2025, per the AMA. A quarter of Kansas premiums saw double-digit hikes, and three-quarters increased overall.
- Kansas is also one of six states with a Patient Compensation Fund, where physicians pay a surcharge on top of their base premium. Premiums in those states rose more sharply than in non-PCF states.
- Missouri did not appear on the top-11 list.
Context: Kansas used to have a $250,000 payout cap, but a judge struck it down in 2019.
Higher liability premiums typically fall on doctors in specialties such as OB-GYN and general surgery, who are sued more often. The high cost of insuring OB-GYNs is one factor in the closures of maternity services across the country.
- Kansas City has lost two hospital maternity programs in just over a year. Research Medical Center shut down its labor and delivery and NICU services in September, and Providence Medical Center in KCK ended its program in June 2024.
- Research Medical Center CEO Kirk L. McCarty cited an 80% drop in obstetric demand at the hospital. Nurses who protested the closure argued the drop came after HCA Healthcare let the hospital's OB group go, KCUR reported.
What they're saying: When malpractice case judgments are "so variable and unpredictable, then insurance companies basically see no choice but to say we have no idea what's going to happen... that's why these premiums go up," AMA President Bobby Mukkamala told Axios.
The other side: Malpractice lawyers and some patient advocates say caps on payouts and other liability changes restrict patients' rights.
- Some past state efforts ran afoul of courts, with judges finding the laws encroached on courts' ability to set their own procedural rules.
What we're watching: Whether increasing premiums will actually influence where physicians decide to practice.