[06/06/02]Athletes in Mississippi high schools have unwittingly found themselves in a different type of competition the tug-of-war between the state’s doctors and lawyers over malpractice insurance.

This game, however, may leave many of them on the sidelines and cripple high school sports.

Fed up with mounting lawsuits and increasing premiums for liability coverage, the Mississippi State Medical Association has decided to eliminate programs that offered free physicals to students wanting to play football, basketball, baseball, softball or other sports.

“We feel like it puts everyone at too much risk in the legal climate that we’re in,” said Vicksburg’s Dr. Briggs Hopson, medical director of River Region Medical Center, a former team doctor and a past president of the state medical association. “It’s sad that you can’t give a physical away anymore because you’re afraid of a lawsuit. I’m sure if a player dropped dead on a football field, there would be several trial lawyers on the phone trying to get the parents to sue.”

Heat strokes and heart defects have resulted in athletes dying during practice elsewhere. Vicksburg has not had a student death from sports.

The Mississippi High School Activities Association and the Mississippi Private School Association both require student athletes to receive physicals before they can participate in a sport. Without the gratis program, families face paying physicians for physicals.

While a routine examination typically costs between $35 and $50, the expense could keep some athletes from lower-income families or families with no health insurance from participating, said Lum Wright Jr., athletic director of the Vicksburg Warren School District. “I think there’s going to be some athletes lost who can’t come up with the money,” he said.

MHSAA director Ennis Proctor who wasn’t aware of the MSMA’s decision early Wednesday afternoon said schools or booster clubs are allowed to pay for physicals, but if they do they must pay for every athlete in every sport. With nearly 500 athletes in the Vicksburg Warren district, Wright said the expense didn’t make that a feasible option.

“I don’t think, at this point in time, the Vicksburg Warren School District can take responsibility for the expense,” Wright said. “It’s going to be a tough situation.”

Wright said he would meet with coaches from Vicksburg High and Warren Central early next week to discuss the issue.

Vicksburg High’s coaches are especially concerned.

Warren Central completed most of its physicals several weeks ago, but VHS athletes along with those from St. Aloysius and Porters Chapel were scheduled to have their free physicals at a clinic on Saturday.

The clinic was canceled after the MSMA’s decision, and the bulk of Warren County’s athletes must now pay for their physicals.

“We’re lucky enough that we did all of our sports on the high school level already. The problem is our junior high kids haven’t gotten theirs,” Warren Central girls basketball coach Donny Fuller said. “The only thing I’m grinning about is I’ve already gotten my varsity done for the year.

“That is a plus for us, but it’s only going to cover us for one year. We’re going to have to do something.”

As Warren County scrambles for a solution, the issue could be a ticking time bomb in other areas of the state. Calvin Masterson, a Vicksburg doctor in family practice, said doctors in Kosciusko and poorer areas of the Delta stopped giving free physicals several years ago.

Masterson’s father, state Rep. Chester Masterson, is a retired physician who is serving on a lawsuit reform study committee in anticipation of a special session of the Legislature later this summer.

“Next year there won’t be any (physicals) done, so it has the potential to be a statewide crisis,” said Calvin Masterson, who estimates he performs 300 to 500 free physicals a year. “In rural Delta areas, you may shut down some sports.”

Calvin Masterson said the decision to halt the free physicals came on the recommendation of their malpractice insurance carriers.

Premiums have risen 80-85 percent in the last year, according to Larry Bourne, vice president of Doctors Insurance Reciprocal, which insures about 500 doctors across the state.

Bourne said rates have increased because of the frequency of lawsuits the size of awards by juries. Calvin Masterson said a lawsuit and from a missed ailment during a free physical could sink a physician’s practice.

During a free clinic, background noise, inferior equipment or the sheer volume of students can sometimes make it difficult to diagnose some health problems, Hopson said.

When those problems surface on the athletic field, a lawsuit often follows and doctors’ insurance rates rise.

“I really hate that it’s come down to this, but if our insurance carriers are not going to cover us for this, we don’t have a choice,” Calvin Masterson said.

Wright, Fuller and several other Warren County coaches said they understood the doctors’ position, and there may be a solution on the horizon.

There is hope that a reform bill can be passed through the legislature, giving doctors a degree of relief in reference to student athletes.

Hopson said the MSMA would also push to have free physicals covered under a good Samaritan law that provides doctors with immunity from the suits. Mississippi already has a law covering clinics for the poor that says if a medical service is free, the provider cannot be sued.

Still, not everyone was optimistic.

“This could take until next year or the next legislative year, until 2003, before we see some kind of tort reform,” Calvin Masterson said.

“You’re not going to hurt the lawyers involved, you’re not going to hurt the insurance companies involved, you’re going to hurt the kids.”