Confusion about malpractice and moonlighting as resident

[surfguy84]

I'm a bit confused about what type of malpractice insurance I should get. I am going to be moonlighting in two different states. Should I pay more for occurrence based insurance or opt for claims and then purchase a tail when I leave the moonlighting gigs? If it matters, I will be starting private practice in a year and will need malpractice then too. Thank you for the advice.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Depends. I’d talk to whatever malpractice insurance company you’d consider to ask if they’d just extend a claims made policy into your private practice the next year since that would be the cheapest short term option, especially if you’re plannjng to go with that company for a while. Otherwise it’ll probably be best to buy occurrence based for this year. The worst financial option will be to buy a 1 year claims made policy and then try to buy tail coverage when you end moonlighting. That happened to me, practice added me on to claims made policy when I moonlighted there for 1.5 years but then went I went to go buy the tail at the end it was like 8K…more than I would have just paid upfront for a separate occurrence based policy especially based on how many hours I was moonlighting.

 

[surfguy84]

Depends. I’d talk to whatever malpractice insurance company you’d consider to ask if they’d just extend a claims made policy into your private practice the next year since that would be the cheapest short term option, especially if you’re plannjng to go with that company for a while. Otherwise it’ll probably be best to buy occurrence based for this year. The worst financial option will be to buy a 1 year claims made policy and then try to buy tail coverage when you end moonlighting. That happened to me, practice added me on to claims made policy when I moonlighted there for 1.5 years but then went I went to go buy the tail at the end it was like 8K…more than I would have just paid upfront for a separate occurrence based policy especially based on how many hours I was moonlighting.

Thanks for the tip - that's good to know because that's exactly what I was leaning towards doing lol.

Any other tips on how to find a good insurer? Right now I'm just going off what another resident told me, but if this insurer is someone I stick with longer term, I wonder if I should do more due diligence.

Also, does once malpractice typically cover across practice in multiple states?

 

[sighchiatry]

Thanks for the tip - that's good to know because that's exactly what I was leaning towards doing lol.

Any other tips on how to find a good insurer? Right now I'm just going off what another resident told me, but if this insurer is someone I stick with longer term, I wonder if I should do more due diligence.

Also, does once malpractice typically cover across practice in multiple states?

Buy occurrence. It will be heavily discounted for you. The headache of claims made is not worth the nominal comparative savings. You can use a payment plan too.

You can have one policy that covers you in multiple states, they may just ask your percentage of work in each state and charge you accordingly.

Use PRMS.

 

[nexus73]

I had a claims made policy for moonlighting during residency for one year. The upfront cost was lower than occurrence based. And the tail combined with the upfront cost was actually slightly less than the occurrence based policy. As I recall, they quoted me what the tail cost would be at the end of one year (because that’s all I planned on needing it for), and being lower it was a no-brainer to pick that over occurrence based.

And if you’re not having taxes taken out of your paychecks, make sure you’re saving money. I remember one resident who spent all the moonlighting money and owed several thousand in taxes at the end of the year they didn’t have.

 

[brainmedicine]

PRMS is the best but they are pricey

 

[yanks26dmb]

I had a claims made policy for moonlighting during residency for one year. The upfront cost was lower than occurrence based. And the tail combined with the upfront cost was actually slightly less than the occurrence based policy. As I recall, they quoted me what the tail cost would be at the end of one year (because that’s all I planned on needing it for), and being lower it was a no-brainer to pick that over occurrence based.

And if you’re not having taxes taken out of your paychecks, make sure you’re saving money. I remember one resident who spent all the moonlighting money and owed several thousand in taxes at the end of the year they didn’t have.

When you buy a tail to cover a claims made policy, is this just a one time fee and then you are covered forever?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

When you buy a tail to cover a claims made policy, is this just a one time fee and then you are covered forever?

yes typically

 

[michaelrack]

whatever type of malpractice insurance you get; get it from a national company and plan on keeping that insurance when you go into private practice.

 

[GHPA]

Most common ones are PRMS and the Doctors company when I moonlighted several years ago.

 

[yanks26dmb]

PRMS occurrence based is a bit more than Doctors coverage of claims + tail. They will also be able to continue this after I graduate and start private practice. Is it worth paying a bit more for occurence based?

 

[surfguy84]

When these companies want to know how much you're working and I try to give them a best estimate, what happens if my estimate is wrong? Like lets say I actually end up working 5 more hours per week over the course of one month than what my estimate was. How big a problem is this? How do they actually know how much I've worked?