Med student malpractice insurance?

courtnes said:

I've searched high and low but haven't found an answer to my question on the forums. I'm doing a clinical/research internship this summer, but neither my school nor the site insure me for the summer. Have any of you been in the same position - having to procure your own malpractice insurance? If so, which company did you use?

I'm going to continue to work between my school, program and site, but I'm worried that if I have to purchase this on my own it'll be super expensive given the field.

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Interesting. I don't have any idea, really. But you might check the documents associated with your homeowner's/renter's insurance, as those policies often confer umbrella liability coverage. Then again, this sounds like the kind of thing they for which they would write a specific exclusion.

Has the program specifically told you that you need to get your own malpractice insurance? When you're still a student, the liability for what you do usually falls on the program/physician in charge of you. It's not like if something goes wrong, a patient would sue you individually- they'd sue the program/hospital, or the attending who was actually their doctor- right?

IANAL, so grain of salt, etc.

theshellyb said:

Has the program specifically told you that you need to get your own malpractice insurance? When you're still a student, the liability for what you do usually falls on the program/physician in charge of you. It's not like if something goes wrong, a patient would sue you individually- they'd sue the program/hospital, or the attending who was actually their doctor- right?

IANAL, so grain of salt, etc.

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Yeah, it is apparently rare. But it does happen (and I'm sure we can conceive of hypotheticals where it might be likely that the student was named). There was some state where they were talking about giving some kind of legislative immunity to med students. In general though, probably only a concern where a student had substantial assets he/she wanted to protect (or if a student was especially paranoid).

IAAL, but still take it with a grain of salt.

eject said:

Yeah, it is apparently rare. But it does happen (and I'm sure we can conceive of hypotheticals where it might be likely that the student was named). There was some state where they were talking about giving some kind of legislative immunity to med students. In general though, probably only a concern where a student had substantial assets he/she wanted to protect (or if a student was especially paranoid).

IAAL, but still take it with a grain of salt.

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Yeah the first thing I would ask is...are you worth anything? Considering most medical students' net worth is about -$100,000 I don't really think you have anything to worry about. What are they gonna come after, your student loan money? Lawyers typically don't come after anyone they can't get money out of.

I would also agree with the other post above. Typically renters insurance covers personal liability to about $100,000 or so...so if they really wanted to try to get blood from a stone I guess they could come after that.

Edit: Let me revise that last statement. I just looked at the personal liability part of my renter's insurance and it's like 7 pages...I don't even feel like reading it right now. So it very well may be that it'll exclude medical malpractice claims.

This seems more of a requirement to do the summer program than anything. As others have said, the typical medical student doesn't have assets to worry about except maybe a car, rarely a home.

If you NEED to do the program and NEED malpractice insurance, try getting the information for your school's carrier and see if they'll sell you a cheap policy for those few months.

You often need supplemental malpractice insurance for away rotations during 4th year. I would look there first.

kavorca said:

You often need supplemental malpractice insurance for away rotations during 4th year. I would look there first.

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My experience is that the malpractice insurance given to you by your school meets all the requirements for away rotations during 4th year. The school just sends a letter stating that you are covered up to X million dollars in liability (i think its usually 3 million). I've had no program ask for extra malpractice insurance coverage.

RafaTech said:

My experience is that the malpractice insurance given to you by your school meets all the requirements for away rotations during 4th year. The school just sends a letter stating that you are covered up to X million dollars in liability (i think its usually 3 million). I've had no program ask for extra malpractice insurance coverage.

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The highest I saw was $3m so you wouldn't have needed it. My school only covered up to 500k (due to malpractice caps in LA, I believe) so I had to buy supplemental for the rest.

courtnes said:

The question remains what companies supply this insurance? The only one I've found is Nexus, and I'm pretty creeped out by them.

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The program specifically asks for insurance? I did a clinical/research summer thing between M1 and M2 and wasn't required to provide anything...what exactly are you going to be doing clinically that malpractice would be a concern?

kavorca said:

The highest I saw was $3m so you wouldn't have needed it. My school only covered up to 500k (due to malpractice caps in LA, I believe) so I had to buy supplemental for the rest.

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Ah that makes sense. I didn't think about state differences in malpractice coverage.