MMIC, a US based medical liability insurer, has received final approval to change its business activity from a stock holding unit to a mutual insurance holding company.
The required approvals for the change have come from the physician policyholders and shareholders following the final approval from the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
MMIC president and CEO Bill McDonough said that this change will enhance their ability to affiliate with other mutual firms owned by physicians, hospitals or other providers, giving them the scale to compete effectively at a time of increasing cost pressures on mutual medical liability insurers.
McDonough said, "Although they were previously a stock holding company, they have operated like a mutual firm for many years, consistently paying dividends to all their customers."
McDonough explained that the change will make MMIC to share back office costs such as technology, investments, reinsurance, and actuarial services with other firms.
The change will also enable MMIC to make investments in new products and services to meet the demands of the changing health care industry, McDonough added.
The transformed MMIC will also insure hospitals and other providers besides insuring physicians.
In addition, it will provide health information technology services through the subsidiary MMIC Health IT and have made significant investments in predictive modeling and data warehousing.