NCRIC Group Inc.
1115 30th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
www.ncric.com Year founded: 1980 Industry: Financial Services Revenue: $61.26 Million Net Income/Loss: ($4,218,000.00) Earnings per share: ($0.65) Dividend: n/a Stockholder equity: $77.98 Million Auditor: Deloitte & Touche LLP Stock: NCRI Assets: $262.55 Million Market capitalization: $64.30 Million 52-week high: 12.45 1/22/2004 52-week low: 8.2025 5/8/2003 Vice Chairman, President and CEO: R. Ray Pate Jr. Chief Financial Officer: Rebecca B. Crunk Employees: 98 Local employees: 55 Description: NCRIC Group sells malpractice insurance and practice-management services to mostly small groups of doctors in Washington and the surrounding states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Developments: It was another difficult year for NCRIC. The insurer boosted its estimate of insurance losses for 2001, 2002 and 2003 by $5.9 million and swung to a loss of $4.2 million for the year even though revenue jumped 44 percent to more than $61 million. The company blamed the results in part on rising claims. In February, a D.C. jury awarded the defunct Columbia Hospital for Women Medical Center $18.2 million in damages, agreeing with the hospital that NCRIC had overcharged for premiums and encouraged doctors to practice elsewhere. NCRIC says it will appeal. The company's viability, it says, could be threatened if the verdict is upheld and that its failure could force many of the doctors it covers to leave the District. To raise money, NCRIC, which became a mutual company in 1998 owned by policyholders, converted in June into a publicly traded company owned by investors, raising $39 million by selling stock to the public. NCRIC was formed by the D.C. Medical Society in 1980. Escalating malpractice awards and insurance costs continue to be a hot topic in medicine and in politics. Repubicans in Congress continue to push for legislation capping punitive damages on malpractice awards and restricting malpractice suits, but the outlook for passage remains cloudy. NCRIC received approvals from regulators in Delaware, the District, Maryland and Virginia to increase rates for doctors it covers in those jurisdictions, starting with renewals Jan. 1, 2004. It also notified West Virginia's insurance commissioner that it will not renew policies for doctors in that state.
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