The legal profession has lobbied hard for government legislation that allows juries to hand out multimillion-dollar awards in medical malpractice suits, which have cranked up
the cost of malpractice insurance into the stratosphere. Still, doctors have lacked the political punch to fight back, and legislation typically favors the lawyers. Right? Not
necessarily.
In mid-2003 a physician-owned insurance group stepped up to the plate, launching a national PR push to get the issue in front of lawmakers, while also positioning itself as a
thought leader on the subject.
With support from New York-based PR firm Peppercom - as well as its members in all 50 states -- The Doctors Company (Napa, Calif.) has succeeded in moving the needle,
bringing malpractice awards to the table as a public-policy issue, despite the lawyers' upper hand with legislators.
Voices from the Front Lines
By relying on the voices of physicians themselves, The Doctors Company offered a grass-roots voice that helped change the perception that the doctors were just another
special interest group.
"As a member owned-organization, we approached it in a way that is a little bit different from a traditional insurance company," says Stacy Schultz, assistant vice president
of marketing and business development. "Our chairman is an oncologist, and over half our board members are physicians, so we really try to attack those things that make it
difficult for our physicians to do the things that they are good at." Like, well, practicing medicine.
This was the essence of the pitch. Big jury awards do more than just jack up insurance rates, the doctors argued. They drive the cost of practicing medicine so high that some
doctors are getting out of the business altogether rather than stay in the profession and struggle just to make ends meet.
To that end, Dr. Richard Anderson, the CEO of the group, was positioned as the chief spokesman for the public awareness effort.
"When he goes out to speak, he can speak as someone who has lived through this himself. He can speak from a clinical point of view," as well as from a business perspective,
Schultz says.
Nuts and bolts
The goal of the PR plan was to shine a spotlight on the malpractice issue. For phase one, Peppercom orchestrates a highly successful media tour in New York and Washington
D.C., bringing Dr. Anderson face-to-face with editors and reporters from Business Week, the New York Times, Time, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal.
At this stage, the campaign had an easy entree. Reporters were eager to comprehend malpractice, which they knew was both a medical and a business issue, but which they did
not necessarily understand. "It was all about education. No one really knows anything about this topic, so our approach to everyone was to educate them on what it was and why they
should care," Schultz says.
As the subject gained traction, the lawyers pursued their own PR efforts, pitching reporters with stories about the drawbacks of tort reform. The Doctors Company and its
members, in turn, responded with an aggressive campaign to get their letters published in Op-Ed columns nationwide.
"We targeted the top business publications and also very specifically certain publications within the medical industry, for example the large medical societies where we already
had relationships or where their membership was already interested in this topic," Schultz says.
The PR effort by the Doctors Company inspired other medical groups. "We answered every 'Letter to the Editor' and called every reporter with correct information," says Dr.
Robert Kessler, a professor at Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine, who serves on the board of trustees of the Nevada Osteopathic Medical Association. "We had several
letters and Op-Ed pieces published, our members were interviewed on TV and we testified at governmental hearings."
As a result, "we succeeded in becoming a group the politicians and media could trust," he says. "Eventually, some [reporters] started calling us for information. [So] we had
tremendous creditability during the special legislative session that was eventually called to deal with this issue."
The PR campaign certainly has put medical malpractice issue on the table, and one state (Texas) even has enacted legislation in line with what doctors groups have been
advocating. But most of the wins so far have been with the media rather than in the nation's statehouses.
In the twelve months following the campaign launch, The Doctors Company media coverage had 28 million media impressions from zero. Nearly all the coverage accurately portrayed
the group's positions.
During the same period, The Doctors Company was featured in 47% more trade publications than its top three competitors and had 48% more national news placements compared with
the same period of time than its top three competitors combined. With its news visibility the organization has positioned itself as a leader not just in the business of insuring
physicians, but also in the effort to support the entire profession.
Contacts: Robert Kessler, 702.434.7112, [email protected]; Stacy Schultz, 866.483.2435, [email protected].