Insurers spurning medicinal pot use

Insurance companies are leaving doctors who prescribe marijuana to patients personally liable in malpractice cases involving their use of the drug, according to a report released yesterday.

With some states and local jurisdictions ignoring a federal ban on the use of marijuana, the drug-abuse-prevention group Educating Voices lauded insurance companies yesterday for not covering marijuana in their policies.

The group, at a news conference on Capitol Hill, expressed optimism in what its research suggests is a growing trend of insurance companies denying coverage in cases in which medicinal marijuana is prescribed. The risk of liability should deter doctors from prescribing the drug, which has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, according to the group's report.

Members of Congress spoke alongside the activists, vowing to crack down on those prescribing marijuana for medicinal use.

"It is an abusive drug with no scientific evidence that it has any medical benefit," said Rep. Jo Ann Davis, Virginia Republican. She said those who use marijuana for medicine are "shortsighted and irresponsible."

The insurance companies are taking steps to limit their liability in claims resulting from the use of non-FDA-approved drugs. Donald Fager, vice president of Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Co., the largest medical-malpractice insurer in the nation, said it excludes experimental drugs and those not commonly in use because "we are covering what is consistent with accepted standards of care."

"We don't want to be on the hook for drugs that don't have FDA approval," he said.

Ten states have passed laws legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, even though the Supreme Court recently ruled in a case against an Oakland, Calif., cannabis club that federal law trumps state law. Insurance companies with exclusions on non-FDA-approved drugs do not exempt doctors in states that have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes.

The report from Educating Voices, based on research of case law, suggests doctors may be liable for injuries suffered by patients prescribed marijuana as well as third parties who are hurt by medicinal-marijuana users.

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