Arthur G. Richards, ARM
Director, Professional Liability Division
Art Richards, a native Oregonian, started in the insurance industry in 1982 when he joined Sedgwick (now Marsh), a multi-national insurance brokerage as a commercial lines producer. While there, he worked in the Public Entity and Medical Professional Liability Departments handling the insurance and risk management needs of large business, cities, counties, and school districts as well as placing MPL insurance for many physicians and medical clinics.
After earning an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation, Art taught ARM Risk Management classes for the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS). Art served on the Boards of the Independent Insurance Agents of Portland and Oregon, as well as serving as President of the Independent Insurance Agents of Portland.
In 1992, Art joined ABI Insurance where he is exclusively involved in the medical professional liability insurance field, representing The Doctor’s Company and Medical Protective; two of the largest standard market medical malpractice insurers in the U.S. Art has also helped many physicians and medical groups not fitting standard underwriting guidelines, secure coverage in the non-standard medical malpractice marketplace.
In 2001 ABI Insurance appointed him Director of their Professional Liability Division. In 2005, The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) appointed Art as their national medical malpractice insurance Agent of Record.
Art’s first assignment from the ASMBS leadership was to find insurance coverage for the extra medical expenses of ‘known’ (described in the informed consent) surgical complications. These extra expenses created a tremendous financial burden on the patient, prompting many ‘financial desperation’ motivated malpractice claims.
Finding no such coverage in the marketplace and with the permission of ABI, in 2005 Art co-founded and co-developed BLISCare (www.bliscare.com), the first surgical complication coverage of its kind. Unlike health insurance for the patient, BLISCare pays medical providers for the additional medical expenses stemming from surgical complication (See how BLISCare Works).
Due to the success with bariatric surgery, BLISCare now covers over 300 surgical procedures across 16 specialties. And because it removes the financial obligation from the patient, there have been no malpractice claims stemming from surgical complications of over 40,000 BLISCare covered procedures.
