Tail Insurance

[geauxg8rs]

I wanted to pick your brains about what I can do about tail insurance if I leave my current job.
Scenarios I was wondering would include
1. liklihood of a new group paying the tail or incorporating it into my new coverage (is this possible)?
2. Getting new coverage on my own and having the tail incorporated into my new policy?

I guess my main question is what options do I have to minimize the amount I would owe after I leave a job. Thanks in advance.

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[PMR 4 MSK]

I wanted to pick your brains about what I can do about tail insurance if I leave my current job.
Scenarios I was wondering would include
1. liklihood of a new group paying the tail or incorporating it into my new coverage (is this possible)?
2. Getting new coverage on my own and having the tail incorporated into my new policy?

I guess my main question is what options do I have to minimize the amount I would owe after I leave a job. Thanks in advance.

Tail sucks - mine was 3x the annual premium, due when it expired or no tail policy would be issued - that worked out to $50K. My new group insisted on it and since I was moving to a new state, could not get a "nose" policy for prior acts. They paid it and then took it out of my productivity.

Everything is negotiable with an employer, just depends how badly they want you and you want them. When/if the time comes, talk to your current insurance about options (usually limited) and the new company where you'll be relocating. Basically it's tail or nose policies. Both suck.

 

[knoxdoc]

You can ask potential future malpractice carriers whether they even offer "prior acts" coverage for the state you will be leaving. I couldn't find anyone that could even provide coverage if I wanted it (plus its more expensive). Just pay the tail and move on. It sucks, especially if you have been in practice for several years. Mine cost me 1.5x my yearly premium, but I had only been working there for 2.5 years. Good luck.

 

[ampaphb]

Tails are the price you pay for not getting an occurrence policy in the first place. Learn your lesson, and, if the carrier offers it, suck it up and pay more now, rather than more later.

 

[Tenesma]

tail is painful but kinda necessary.... unless you live in a tort reform state ... and then you are just playing the odds...

 

[clubdeac]

Wanted to resurrect this thread. Has anything changed in 5 years? I think the whole concept of tail coverage is a scam. I mean really if you think about it the concept makes no effing sense. If I was covered at the time of the incident what does it matter if I currently have the same coverage or not. We're talking about one particular point in time at which time I was covered. What a scam. And how long can someone sue you after the act? statute of limitations? Do I have to get tail? I prescribe relatively low dose opiates (<60 MEQ) on most patients and no one has had an adverse event from any procedures I've performed. Knock on wood. But really what could someone sue me for other than an opioid overdose

 

[emd123]

They could try to sue you for any level of BS. Your procedure "made the pain worse," "OD = your fault," Susie dropped dead of a heart attack the day of your trigger point injection even though it was 100% coincidence, or a procedural complication. It doesn't have to make sense for them to try to shake you down for money, and try to get you to settle, to make them go away. Most suits against doctors are that way.

Yes it sucks, but you absolutely should cover your tail. Otherwise you'll bleed tend of thousands of personal dollars from even a nuisance suit, which eventually midst physicians get, even in low risk specialties.

 

[pastafan]

Prior acts coverage aka nose is always considerably less money than tail coverage from the insurance company that you are leaving. As emd stated any suit, however frivolous, costs money to defend. I have not practiced anywhere that an insurer offered occurrance policies. They dissapeared decades ago in the majority of states.

 

[sblau001]

When I left Florida for Colorado, I was quoted a ridiculous price for tail. Personally, I would have taken my chances and gone without it, but my new insurance carrier in Colorado required it. What I did was this: I found out the statute on limitations (something like 3 years), and asked my new carrier if I could just get coverage for those years. They were ok with that, and the whole thing cost about 7k. Did learn my lesson though. I now have an occurrence policy.

 

[Ducttape]

tail is absolutely necessary.

all of insurance is a scam and shake down. tails are no different.

(16) Unless otherwise provided by statute, for personal injury or physical damage to claimant's property, the cause of action, except in causes of actions referred to in G.S. 1-15(c), shall not accrue until bodily harm to the claimant or physical damage to his property becomes apparent or ought reasonably to have become apparent to the claimant, whichever event first occurs. Provided that no cause of action shall accrue more than 10 years from the last act or omission of the defendant giving rise to the cause of action.

NC law. im not a lawyer, but possibly 10 years?

i can imagine a case where you do an epidural injection, and later on down the line (say, 10 years later), has an MRI scan and the surgeon states that the arachnoiditis has nothing to do with his 3 surgical failures, and is due to the 1 epidural injection clubdeac did...

 

[SSdoc33]

you'll need the tail to practice at your new job in most locations. completely sucks, but this is why tail coverage needs ot be hashed out when you sign your initial employment contract. if that didnt happen for your last job, looks like you are out of luck, but make sure you have something in place for your next one.

 

[clubdeac]

shoot me now... these effer's have completely skerewed me over. I get more bitter every day...

 

[bronchospasm]

Before I started my pain fellowship, my malpractice carrier ( MEDPRO) offered tail insurance that would be about 2.5 times my yearly anesthesia premium -$14500. So they wanted close to $35.000. And at one point, I was getting ready to pay this.

I explained to the underwriter that I wanted to take a learning sabbatical for a year and feel that I was getting punished for pursuing advanced training for which I was getting paid $42,000 a year. They came back saying they would only allow it for 6 months and would suspend the policy for 6 months with no premium. Then they wanted me to pay the premium for another 6 months. So after much negotiation since I was not practicing anesthesia for the remainder of the six months, they agreed to lower my classification to that of a physician who does not have clinical duties. Essentially dropping my premium to $2500 for the six months. After my fellowship, I went back to MEDPRO and after I moved to a different state, my premium has now dropped to $9800.

I have some sort of rider on my policy for 3 years till my previous exposure before I can convert to an occur acne policy without paying anything extra.

Just wanted to share this with others who might be in a similar situation.

Other colleagues who joined fellowship with me had paid a tail insurance (28k). I think that it is important to use a company that offers policy in most states.