Malpractice insurance for IMG's

[Cristagali]

I'm an American attending a European medical school and would like to do a few electives back in the states? Some hospitals cover IMG's, others do not...Any suggestions, names, numbers of companies that will offer temporary medical student malpractice insurance...Thanks (PS I already know about PGY1md.com)

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[Skip Intro]

Generally, you should be indemnified by the hospital/medical school that will be "sponsoring" your elective. Your best bet is first to find which school/hospital you'd like to set your electives up with, see what their individual policy is with visiting medical students, and then ask whether or not you need additional insurance. If you cannot get insured by the program/school that you want to visit AND they can't recommend a way for you to get insured YET they will still allow you to do a visiting elective, you should strongly and wisely consider not doing that rotation at that hospital!

Lawyers go after deep pockets. As a student, that won't be you. While there's always a possibility that you may get called to testify in a malpractice case, chances are that you will not get personally sued (because you are only a student after all and cannot, technically, function without the supervision of a resident and/or attending nor are you fully responsible for your actions) unless you are doing something you really, really shouldn't be doing, but if I were you I still wouldn't take that risk.

Information about schools offering elective rotations to visiting students can be found here:

http://services.aamc.org/eec/student.cfm

Contact the person coordinating the program you specifically want to apply for. Notwithstanding the above, none of us here will know the specific answer to your question.

Good luck.

-Skip

 

[Cristagali]

Thanks for the repsonse. A number of the "bigger" teaching hospitals offer visiting medical student electives for IMG's and yes some do cover those visiting students. However, I have run across a few that have visiting electives, but no malpractice coverage...(one program even said on its site "we don't know where you can get insurance, so don't ask!! Sounds like the PD's secretary had a bad day!) In the end I will probably avoid those programs not offering coverage. Thanks for the input.

 

[BellKicker]

Hi Cristagali,

I started a thread in the clinical rotations forum that you might wanna check out. It's a couple of weeks old but probably still on the first page.

I've contacted many companies and so far there's been a few leads but nothing definite. You know, people who tell you they think it's possible and they'll get back to you but never do.....

Just curious, was that school with "we don't know where to get it and don't ask" University of Wisconsin? They have something like that on their web page. Rude but honest, I guess.

Good luck.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Since there are many many schools out there that DO cover IMGs rotating for electives, why not simplify things and only apply to those schools? Unless your undergrad med school requires you to do your rotations at certain schools (which, in such a case THEY should pay for the insurance), you have lots of places to choose from.