Most Southeast states do not impose a blanket statutory malpractice-coverage mandate on every licensed physician. However, virtually every hospital privileging committee, Medicaid managed-care payer contract, and commercial office lease requires minimum limits of $1M per claim / $3M aggregate, which makes coverage effectively required in practice for any physician who wants to see insured patients or lease office space.
Louisiana is a partial exception — its Medical Malpractice Act functionally requires enrollment in the Patient’s Compensation Fund plus $100,000 in primary coverage to access the $500,000 recovery cap. See our Louisiana guide for detail.
