Negligence And Malpractice

Responsibility Of Medical Malpractice Insurance Companies

Every medical professional, whether a doctor, nurse, therapist, technician, surgeon, dentist, etc must have medical malpractice insurance, as a means of holding a liability insurance policy to offset costs and risks of lawsuits based on malpractice.  While some medical professionals will need to take out a policy on their own, others working for a clinic or hospital may be covered by the medical facility.  In fact, of all insurance a medical profession needs medical malpractice insurance companies agree this is the most vital.

If a patient was harmed or even died because of the care provided someone in the medical arena and a lawsuit was filed, this type of insurance would provide protection to the doctor, dentist, therapist, etc.  Because of the nature of lawsuits for medical malpractice, typically, the payout to the patient and/or family is high, especially if a death occurred.  Obviously, if the medical professional were found guilty in a court of law and required to pay the court-awarded amount, it could end that person’s career.

However, with coverage through one of the best medical malpractice insurance companies, monies paid to the patient and/or his/her family would come from the insurance company and not the medical professional.  Obviously, a policy such as this is critical to anyone providing medical care but because court payouts are high and the number of lawsuits is on the rise, the doctor, nurse, dentist, and so on pays a hefty premium.  In fact, for some the premium has become so steep that the medical professional had to stop practicing medicine or drop one type of care provided to patients.

For instance, one of the most expensive but also most important policies that medical malpractice insurance companies provide is for OB/GYN.  Because of this, a doctor that practices general family care but also provides services for OB/GYN, he or she may find it necessary to give the latter area of practice up in order to keep providing patients with general care.  While unfortunate, it is simply a fact that malpractice insurance is expensive.

When medical professionals secure coverage through medical malpractice insurance companies for this type of policy, they are locking into a legal contract.  For people in the medical profession needing this type of coverage, they should always secure quotes from several medical malpractice insurance companies.  The reason is that each company is unique so the details of the policy, as well as price are going to vary.  In fact, medical malpractice insurance companies have different types of malpractice policies from which a person could choose.

In most cases, liability policies through medical malpractice insurance companies will require the medical professional to report any incident believed to lead to a claim.  According to industry standards, this would be for any claim believed “reasonably expected” but the challenge is that no definition for what “reasonable” exists.  Therefore, when someone in the medical field meets with different insurance companies to discuss medical malpractice coverage, they should have a clear understanding as to when an incident should be reported.

Often, an unreported incident leads to trouble for the dentist, as well as the agent that sold the policy.  The reason is that insurance agents working for medical malpractice insurance companies can be sued for negligence.  For instance, if the doctor, nurse, dentist, etc were told an incident does not need to be reported but it ends up becoming a bona fide claim, the insurance company could refuse to pay.  With this, any gap in coverage, delay in reporting, etc would become the financial responsibility of the agent that advised the medical professional not to submit a “reasonably expected” claim.