On March 19, The Doctors Company, the largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer in the U.S., announced it will acquire ProAssurance Corp., a specialty medical liability insurer and one of the few public companies headquartered in Alabama.
Birmingham-based ProAssurance began as Mutual Assurance, formed in 1976 by Alabama physicians to fill the liability insurance void left when the state’s medical association-endorsed carrier abandoned the market.
In 1991, Mutual Assurance became the first physician-founded company to demutualize and convert to a publicly traded stock company. Led by its mission to protect others, ProAssurance provides health care liability coverage, workers’ compensation insurance and other insurance options to its customers. The ProAssurance Group includes five lines of business: ProAssurance MPL, Medmarc, Eastern Alliance, PICA Group, and ProAssurance Corporate.
Headquartered in California, The Doctors Company also was founded by physicians during the liability crisis of the 1970s, a time when malpractice lawsuits and jury awards sharply increased causing commercial insurance companies to raise rates significantly or leave the market. The Doctors Company believes that its member-owned structure allows it to be uniquely aligned with physicians’ interests and in an ideal position to represent and advocate for physicians in political and legal settings. Both The Doctors Company and ProAssurance have grown through acquisition of other physician-specialist insurers.
“We are excited about this transaction and what it means for our stockholders, our policyholders, our employees and our distribution partners,” ProAssurance President and CEO Ned Rand says. Rand has been with the company since 2004, previously serving as COO, CFO, executive vice president and senior vice president of finance.
“An important consideration in deciding to enter into the agreement was the shared history of the two companies, as that shared history means ProAssurance and The Doctors Company have similar operating philosophies and missions,” says Rand.
Over the past five decades, each company has expanded within health care to provide coverage for hospitals, facilities, life sciences companies and other providers by offering a range of product options to meet the industry’s needs.
“Combining the strengths of the two organizations will create the premier medical malpractice company that will be the preferred choice of our distribution partners and health care clients,” says Rand. “We will have the depth of products, defense expertise, risk management and service to compete effectively across the country.”
The combined company will be the largest physician-owned medical professional liability carrier with pro forma medical professional liability net written premiums of approximately $2 billion.
Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, ProAssurance stockholders will receive $25.00 in cash per share, an approximately 60% premium to the closing price per share of ProAssurance common stock on March 18, the last trading day prior to the announcement.
“The transaction will deliver significant value to ProAssurance’s stockholders,” says Rand. “The Doctors Company recognized that adding ProAssurance to their organization would significantly enhance its ability to serve health care professionals now and well into the future.”
The transaction value will be approximately $1.3 billion, and the combined companies will have assets of approximately $12 billion.
“We are excited to further our mission to advance, protect and reward the practice of good medicine to an even greater number of health care providers across the nation,” said Richard E. Anderson, MD, FACP, chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, at the time of acquisition announcement. “Health care is a team sport, and the teams are getting larger. Providing the best imaginable service requires a mission-based company with nationwide scale, resources, and dedication to all medical professions and health care providers.”
The board of directors of ProAssurance unanimously approved the transaction and recommended that its shareholders approve the agreement. On June 24, the company’s stockholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed acquisition by The Doctors Company. More than 99% of shares voted, including abstentions, were in favor of the proposal to approve the agreement.
On July 2, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission terminated the waiting period for the pending acquisition, bringing it one step closer to finalization. The transaction remains subject to required regulatory approvals and approvals by the insurance regulators in the domicile states of ProAssurance insurance subsidiaries. It is not subject to a financing condition.
Once the transaction is complete, ProAssurance’s common stock will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and ProAssurance will become a wholly owned subsidiary of The Doctors Company. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026.
While plans for how the completed acquisition will impact ProAssurance’s employees and the Birmingham business have not been released, The Doctors Company notes that it has been honored for a third time as a Great Place to Work, scoring higher than the average company on employee surveys by the Great Place to Work organization.
“We are proud to support a workplace where employees feel heard, valued and empowered to grow,” said Rachel Nelson, senior vice president of human resources, The Doctors Company, at the time of the award announcement. “By actively listening to our teams and acting on their feedback, we continue to strengthen the employee experience and invest in the success of our people.”
The Doctors Company is part of TDC Group, the nation’s largest physician-owned provider of insurance and risk management solutions. TDC Group serves more than 110,000 health care professionals and organizations nationwide, seeking to build the preeminent organization for service to health care. “We remain deeply committed to supporting health care professionals across the entire country,” says Robert E. White Jr., president of The Doctors Company and TDC Group. “Our mission guides our work in every community we serve, including Alabama.”
Kathleen Farrell is a Mobile-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.
This article appears in the August 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
