malpractice insurance

[kumar28]

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Hey all,
Was thinking about doing some moonlighting in residency and was going to purchase malpractice insurance. Does anyone have any recommendations regarding this? Anything I should watch out for. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks

 

[nitemagi]

See if they offer discounts for:
1) Part-time practice
2) Early career

Think about if you want a hammer clause.

 

[sunlioness]

I would strongly advise against doing any job as a resident that required you to purchase your own malpractice insurance. Instead I would look for an institution that can and will cover you.

1. Most insurers want someone to be at least board eligible.
2. I don't know that you'd make enough as a moonlighter to justify paying for it.
3. It's just a huge headache because you're going to have to make sure that you have a policy in place to cover possible malpractice claims that occurred during that job for years after you have that job. This means you either need to buy more expensive insurance at the outset that covers this or when you're finished the job, you need to buy "tail insurance" in addition, which is also crazy expensive.

Of course my dislike for stuff like this is why I am a happy W-2 employee rather than still out on my own (my tail insurance for my year and change of solo practice cost me over $9,000). If I ever leave my current employer, they buy the tail for me. Gotta love that. 🙂

 

[TexasPhysician]

I would strongly advise against doing any job as a resident that required you to purchase your own malpractice insurance. Instead I would look for an institution that can and will cover you.

1. Most insurers want someone to be at least board eligible.
2. I don't know that you'd make enough as a moonlighter to justify paying for it.
3. It's just a huge headache because you're going to have to make sure that you have a policy in place to cover possible malpractice claims that occurred during that job for years after you have that job. This means you either need to buy more expensive insurance at the outset that covers this or when you're finished the job, you need to buy "tail insurance" in addition, which is also crazy expensive.

Of course my dislike for stuff like this is why I am a happy W-2 employee rather than still out on my own (my tail insurance for my year and change of solo practice cost me over $9,000). If I ever leave my current employer, they buy the tail for me. Gotta love that. 🙂

No institution near me has moonlighting. They all require you to get your own malpractice. There are many opportunities to make moonlighting lucrative even with insurance in my neck of the woods.

Tail insurance does sound worth looking into. I'm not sure why insurance would be sold without it?

 

[nitemagi]

My experience has been it varies by location and need. Many institutions do require you to be BE, but others have made arrangements with residencies to hire moonlighting residents, and have a long tradition of doing so. If you can't find one, you can always call institutions and try to set one up.

 

[sunlioness]

I can only speak to the situation in my state (PA), which is the only place I'm familiar with.

There are two kinds of malpractice insurance policies.

Occurence covers any claim made for something that happened while the policy was in force no matter when the claim is made. So if I worked in X job for 3 years and someone decides to sue me for something that happened during that time period, I am still covered even if I no longer work at that job or continue to carry the same policy. Occurence policies used to be standard, but are becoming more rare. They are wickedly expensive.

Claims made policies are becoming more the norm. They only cover claims made while the policy is active. Thus if I am working at X job and continue to work at X job with that same policy when I am sued, I am covered. If the claim occurs after I no longer actively have that policy, I am SOL unless I've purchased tail insurance. Claims made policies are much more affordable than occurence policies. Purchasing tail insurance is painful on the wallet, but necessary if you want the continued protection.

 

[Manicsleep]

x

 

[kumar28]

Thanks for all the advice. Was going to go with 'the doctors company' which I hear is a respectable national company. After reading about the 'hammer clause' it seems like it would be better to not have it rather than having it included in the policy..thoughts?