Medical professional liability insurance may be one of the most important protections a healthcare professional has against lawsuits by patients claiming that actions or job performance failures resulted in injury or death. It’s not just important for physicians. It also protects nurses, dentists and lab technicians, too – any licensed healthcare professional who works with patients.
While solo practitioners may buy their own policies, more typically, healthcare providers like hospital systems and medical groups take out medical professional liability insurance on behalf of their professional staffs and pay the premiums. It’s cost of doing business and a way to protect its assets as well as employees’.
Medical professional liability insurance is under pressure. Rates are heading up as high verdict malpractice claims occur more often. According to one report, $4,031,987,700 was paid out in 2018 judgements. Understanding and managing the risks will make the difference in liability and rates moving forward. These include:
- The diagnosis...: Studies have uncovered various practice areas that can be troublesome for healthcare professionals and merit extra precautions. For example, one found that 34% of medical malpractice claims over a 10-year period resulting in permanent injury or death stemmed from diagnostic errors. These are among the most common errors in medicine.
The cure: Sufficient credentialing of professional staff is essential to head off medical professional liability insurance claims. Checking out loss histories is essential, for example, as is awareness of red flags like job hopping. - Electronic records can cause claims: Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are also troublesome; 70% of the respondents to one study attributed claims to misused cut-and-paste functions.
The cure: Setting policies and procedures and training staff on best practices in using EMR is critical, especially for cut-and-paste functions. Regular manual system audits are also helpful for uncovering issues like chronic misusers. - A worrisome aspect of hospital costs.
Medical professional liability insurance accounts for about half of hospitals’ annual casualty costs, also adding $55 billion to $200 billion to healthcare costs annually.
The cure: Adding rigor to critical practices will make a difference in risk posture. For example, effectively keeping patients informed about issues of post-surgical costs and deployment of hospitalists can keep malpractice claims down. It’s also key to maintain and update procedural review policies and claims handling procedures.
A knowledgeable insurance broker with expertise in healthcare generally and medical professional liability insurance specifically will be your best guide to finding the best policy for your organization, including what to expect in premiums and terms, and will help healthcare professionals do what it takes to follow best risk-management practices.
Contact a HUB broker to explore your options, and craft a tailored medical professional liability insurance policy to suit your company's needs. Safeguard your practice and continue to provide quality care to the patients who need it most.
