IS THERE MORE TO BUYING NP MED MAL INSURANCE THAN PRICE?
YES!!!!
Imagine a licensing board appearance for which you have no insurance policy that pays for license defense—this is not only threatening your license, but also your LIVELIHOOD. Or you have a cash hustle in aesthetics that you plan to expand, until you discover that your incumbent insurance co excludes an aesthetics practice that makes up more than 25% of the practice? Or surcharges a practice whose telehealth activity is >50%--suggesting that the practice is not seeing all patients for an in-person assessment—dashing your ideal 100% telehealth psychiatric NP practice vision?
Are you interested in what I’d look for in reviewing the NP’s medical malpractice policy? Here are some questions on my top 10 list that will help you customize the standard med mal policy to your situation:
- 1. Any rate increases imminent?
- 2. Do they curate/publish NP claim info, and specifically for NPs who are practice owners/self-employed?
- 3. Add to NP policy the NP’s’ Vicarious Liability [VL] for collaborator acts? Additional premium or no charge?
- 4. License defense endorsement
- a. Ability to select counsel [remember, this is your livelihood] who is a nurse-attorney
- b. Consent to settle with or without a hammer?
- c. Covered only if complaint arises out of underlying medical incident or a broader professional services trigger?
- 5. Telehealth—any constraints e.g. max percent of practice that can be telehealth?
- 6. Cybersecurity—where is HIPAA protection—for defense and notification expenses. Do I really need separate stand-alone cybersecurity policy or will the med mal policy cover my defense expenses and any fines? Is the $25,000 limit adequate?
- 7. Do I need cover for just me, or also for employees/ medical directors?
- 8. Any cover for criminal allegations of unlicensed telehealth practice outside state of license?
- 9. Shop around—insurer underwriter hot buttons vary
- 10. Price—ask about premium increases that will affect next year’s renewal. Significantly lower premium is not necessarily troublesome: a new entrant into the marketplace may not have paid many losses yet and is buying your business. So long as the company carries an A.M. Best rating of A or above, your risk that the company will not be able to pay your claims is low.
NNPEN is here to help you ask the right questions. Your Insurance Advisor can answer them.
Members can use their free hour of consulting with a Founder to better understand what’s important to them in their policy choices. Together we can view your insurance policies as the important asset they are.
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