The answer is: NO!

I was recently talking to an attorney who retired from representing doctors insured by UMIA.  UMIA inures the vast majority of doctors in Utah.  The attorney told me that while working for UMIA, he represented a doctor in an arbitration and lost.  The arbitrator awarded over $1,000,000 to the patient.

Shortly after the arbitration, the defense attorney had a private lunch with the arbitrator.  The defense attorney told the arbitrator that UMIA had told him to tell the arbitrator, two strikes and he’s out.  In other words, if the arbitrator ever gave an award that high again, UMIA would blacklist that arbitrator.

Because UMIA has such a large market share, that threat was very real.  I”m sure that in every arbitration since then, that arbitrator worries that a large award may affect his income.

Whenever an insurance company that does a lot of arbitrations is involved, arbitration is not fair.  The arbitrator is not a neutral party because the arbitrator knows that if the insurance company does not like the decision the insurance company will hurt the arbitrator where it counts, his pocket book.