how much do we pay for malpractice insurance?

[ktsue]

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I have yet to see actual numbers. I know they differ by state and by specialty, but even just percentages of income would be nice. I'm interested in mainly EM or EM/IM in the IA, MO, or OH areas.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Residents don't pay malpractice insurance. If you are working as an EM physician or other hospitalist after residency, your insurance should be covered by your employer.

Check the EM forum - perhaps they can give you some links.

 

[edfig99]

different by state - often times city within that state, specialty and type of policy (claims made: covered while working vs. occurrence: covered for life).

most of the time if you are an employed physician, your employer will pay for your insurance (with some caveats).

if you'd like to get a sense of one insurer in new york state, you can go to www.mlmic.com -- they have a rate quote feature.

for example, an occurrence policy for EM in Albany is about $11K per year.
an occurrence policy for EM in Manhattan is about $32K per year.

 

[docB]

Residents don't pay malpractice insurance. If you are working as an EM physician or other hospitalist after residency, your insurance should be covered by your employer.

Check the EM forum - perhaps they can give you some links.

I know that Kimberli Cox knows this but I want to make sure that all the students and residents know it too. We all pay for malpractice insurance even if we don't sign the checks. If your employer pays it they are paying it with money that could otherwise be used to increase your pay. If your residency pays it they are paying it with funds that could go to train more residents or provide more salary, books, conferences, etc. to the existing residents. That money comes from somewhere.

 

[xanthines]

Yeah, but ignorance is bliss.

-X

I know that Kimberli Cox knows this but I want to make sure that all the students and residents know it too. We all pay for malpractice insurance even if we don't sign the checks. If your employer pays it they are paying it with money that could otherwise be used to increase your pay. If your residency pays it they are paying it with funds that could go to train more residents or provide more salary, books, conferences, etc. to the existing residents. That money comes from somewhere.

 

[beriberi]

Actually, some large academic centers do not pay for malpractice insurance--they "self-insure." That means the have a bucket of money sitting some place labeled "lawyers" and a smaller bucket labeled "relatives of the sick and dead" If they get sued, they just go to court and dump out the buckets. Then they go home and get rid of the employee discount in the cafeteria, and increase resident parking fees to help fill them up again.

Which is really just an academic point. Malpractice costs all of us money, but usually you don't write the check.