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Malpractice premiums
- Thread starter anteater831
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We need to know, where your located? how much malpractice insurance? Other riders attached (are you practicing iv sedation)? etc, etc. In other words you need to be a little more specific.
i've seen ranges from 800-1500 bucks
I paid $400/year when I first graduated from dental school in 1998. Currently, I pay $3000 year for a 1,000,000/3,000,000 coverage. My practice is 100% orthodontics. My wife is a periodontist and she pays similar premium. So does my sister who is a GP. We all bought our malpractice insurance from Dentists Advantage.
Anteater831, from your screen name, I assume that you did your undergrad at UCI and you are currently practicing dentistry in southern Cal. I know Western Dental is the only company that provides malpractice insurance for the associate dentists and specialists.
I just received my renewal notice yesterday. On the adivice of an insurance specialist, my partner and I both upped from $1,000,000/$3,000,000 policies to $2,000,000 /$6,000,000 this year.
I'm 11 years out of school, and my yearly premium is $2321.
Note, the descision to up our coverage limits was based on the fact that the size of our practice has grown to the extent that *if* something was to happen and a judgement was to be rendered against myself or my partner, that the likely $$ figure attached to the award would be larger.
Kind of a good thing/bad thing scenario, where having extra coverage is bad in that you pay more for it, but good in that the health and size of the practice suggests that if something happens, you'll need it.🙄
I'm 11 years out of school, and my yearly premium is $2321.
Note, the descision to up our coverage limits was based on the fact that the size of our practice has grown to the extent that *if* something was to happen and a judgement was to be rendered against myself or my partner, that the likely $$ figure attached to the award would be larger.
Kind of a good thing/bad thing scenario, where having extra coverage is bad in that you pay more for it, but good in that the health and size of the practice suggests that if something happens, you'll need it.🙄
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I'm in the process of getting malpractice insurance as well. I'll be going with Dentist Advantage as well and they're charging me $361 for the first year and $780 for the second year for the $1mil/$3mil coverage.
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Why is first year insurance much lower than subsequent years? As you can probably tell, i'm only a pre-dent...
$380 for 1mill/3mill claims based. Thats for a 1st year grad.
I don't know for sure, but I would assume that because you are so slow, new docs typically see such a few number of patients, a lot are too afraid to do much more than hygiene checks and fillings, as an associate most get screwed by their owner docs and just do dentures and hygiene, etc, etc. Basically, there isn't too much risk your first year out. It is when you get quick and decide you are sick of living like a teacher and talk yourself into doing endo, ortho, OS, implants, cosmetic, etc that you pose a risk to the companies.
It depends if you do the claims made or occurance type of policy. If you do occurance then it is expensive from the get go, but generally stays about the same for as long as you have your insurance. This is nice becuase you will always be covered based on when you did the procedure in question, and not based on if you are currently covered by that company. The claims made policy generally is cheaper for the first 2-3 years, but then matches roughly the Occurance policy. The CM policy covers any procedure while you hold the policy, but the second you switch they no longer cover any procedure that you might have done while under their policy. That is when you would need to buy a "tail" to cover you for a specific amount of time. This can typically run 3-4k.
For example, someone gets pissed you didn't diagnose their perio 3 years ago. They sue you. If had an occurance policy, and you are now retired-switched companies whatever, you would still be covered. However if you were under a CM policy and you were no longer under that policy and you didn't purchase the tail, you're screwed.
They basically are similar in the long run, but most people I know do Claims Made because they are poor when they start out.
I'm not an insurance agent, so there might be some variations, I just pay the bills when they come in.
For example, someone gets pissed you didn't diagnose their perio 3 years ago. They sue you. If had an occurance policy, and you are now retired-switched companies whatever, you would still be covered. However if you were under a CM policy and you were no longer under that policy and you didn't purchase the tail, you're screwed.
They basically are similar in the long run, but most people I know do Claims Made because they are poor when they start out.
I'm not an insurance agent, so there might be some variations, I just pay the bills when they come in.
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this is useful info,thanks for posting.shudnt dental schools have at least one lecture in 4 years on buying malpractice insurance considering its the backbone of private practice?!🙄
