Frequently asked questions
What is Medical Malpractice Insurance?
This product, often called Medical Professional Liability Insurance, is a must for every health care professional.
Even the most competent professional can make a mistake and should protect against that possibility. Even Professionals who make no mistakes can be sued. Defending a malpractice lawsuit is often expensive, even when the defendant wins. The costs include legal fees, expert witness fees, other expenses, and the payment if a case is lost or settled. Health care professionals win most malpractice lawsuits, but the legal system rarely allows for the winner’s recovery of expenses. Since the defense cost is high and a loss can be devastating, this insurance product is essential to every practice.
What is the difference between Claims Made and occurrence-based cover?
With an occurrence-based policy, you shall be protected against any claim or event provided the incident occurred while your policy was active. Occurrence policies accommodate “long-tail” events – situations that don’t produce lawsuits or claims right away. The claims-made policy only covers incidents that happen and are reported within the policy’s time frame. Therefore, if a claim comes in after a policy is inactive, there will be no valid claim. Usually, with a claims made policy, you will be given additional 3 years to notify claims after retirement.
An occurrence policy is typically more costly than a claims-made policy because there is no limit when a claim must be reported.
When should I notify the insurer of an adverse event which could result in a claim?
With the occurrence-based policy, you only need to notify your insurer if the patient or patient’s representative notifies you that they are making a claim or if you receive a request for records.
In a claims-made policy, you need to notify the insurer of each and every unfavorable incident, which may result in a claim.
When I switch from one malpractice insurance provider to another, will my old provider still pay any claims in progress, which I have notified them?
When moving from an occurrence-based policy provider to any new Claims-made or occurrence-based policy provider, your previous occurrence-based provider will always cover incidents relating to your previous period of coverage, so there would be no need to buy retroactive cover.
When moving from a Claims-made provider to a new Claims-made or occurrence-based provider, your previous provider will only cover for claims notified during the active period of your policy. You can request your new provider to grant retroactive cover to protect against claims that were not previously notified to the previous provider.
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