Malpractice question (vacation coverage) for anesthesia

[aneftp]

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Got a quick question about anesthesiology malpractice coverage.

I buy my own occurrence malpractice coverage (I am an independent contractor).

But my friend who lives in a different county (same state, Florida) has claims made insurance. He asked me to cover his standa lone surgery center (ortho, uro, GI, no peds).

I know with my insurance coverage, MedPro allows me to have up to 6 weeks vacation gap coverage if I wanted to hire another MD to cover me. That MD doesn't have to worry about tail since my coverage is occurrence.

Now my friend has claims made and he says I can go under his policy since I am providing vacation coverage. He's got a different carrier (think it's APAC, anesthesiologists professional assurance company). It may a a modified claims made policy but I need to check into that. Yes, I know there are differences between claims and modified claims

So the question is should I just go ahead and inform my MedPro I am covering another facility in another county? This probably will raise my premium by a couple of thousand. It's Florida but it's not Miami Dade, Palm, or Broward or even Orange County (the big Florida counties for malpractice ligation). Or should I go ahead an go under his policy?

 

[sevoflurane]

I know with my insurance coverage, MedPro allows me to have up to 6 weeks vacation gap coverage if I wanted to hire another MD to cover me. That MD doesn't have to worry about tail since my coverage is occurrence.

Interesting. I didn't know you could cover someone else under your insurance policy. Am I understanding this conrrectly? Back when we used locums for vacation coverage they would always carry their own policy. What happens if there is a bad outcome and a lawsuit? Would that raise YOUR insurance policy?

So the question is should I just go ahead and inform my MedPro I am covering another facility in another county? This probably will raise my premium by a couple of thousand. It's Florida but it's not Miami Dade, Palm, or Broward or even Orange County (the big Florida counties for malpractice ligation). Or should I go ahead an go under his policy?

I'm not sure I can answer those questions. I'm also an independent contractor with an occurrence policy with medpro. They seem to be a good company. I'm not sure if your insurance premiums would go up that much and permanently. Sounds like an incognito phone call to them might give you the best answers.

Out of curiosity, and if you don't mind, how much are you paying per year in a "non-litigious" Floridian county? What counties/parts of Florida are favorable with regards to litigiousness. I've always been under the impression that Florida and Pennsylvania round up the top 2 worst states in the US with regards to lawsuits. It's real nice down there however....

For comparison, I'm in a tort reform state and am paying 8K/year- occurrence.

 

[aneftp]

I emailed my insurance company and this was their response,

"With respect to providing locum tenens coverage, the physician for whom you are planning on filling in for should have coverage for you under his policy. In turn, If you were to take vacation or a sabbatical and want someone to cover your patients under your policy, Medical Protective would provide coverage as well subject to an application."

I knew that.

I bet a lot of people who carry their own policy didn't realize they get "X" amount of weeks that they can hire a locums MD and have that locums MD covered under their policy. Of course, "coverage is subjected to an application."

As for Florida, obviously the big malpractice counties in South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward (Ft. Lauderdale), and Palm Beach premiums will be a lot higher.

I am primarily right outside of Orlando and my premiums for occurrence runs only $13700 for 2011-2012. It's gone down quite a bit. It was close to $20K when I started down in Florida 3 years ago. Not sure why my premiums have gone down (but I am not complaining) plus I took a risk management online course and that knocked off another 5% for 25K0/750K coverage. Places that required 1mil/3mil, my occurrence premiums would jump all the way up to $26K a year.

I know down in those 3 counties in S. Florida, occurrence malpractice premiums depending on 250/750K vs. 1 mil/3 mil run can run up to 30K range a year for occurrence.

Keep in mind a lot of Florida surgeons and OB have "opted out" of carrying any type of malpractice insurance. That's why as anesthesiologist, you want to carry as little as possible because you become the primary target for lawyers if the OB doesn't carry any liability coverage. They just need to post a sign on their office that they don't carry insurance and supposedly sign a piece of paperwork an "attests that they have a non revokable 250K stashed somewhere." Pretty much hogwash cause either Florida docs shelter their money into their homes (homestead laws) or hide their money down in the Caymans (one of my plastic surgeon friends does this).

 

[sevoflurane]

Yep. I also took that risk management course. Ughh... painful, but worth the 5%.

Thanks for your reply. I think I learned something today. Although I don't know what "subject to an application" really means. 👍

 

[core0]

I emailed my insurance company and this was their response,

"With respect to providing locum tenens coverage, the physician for whom you are planning on filling in for should have coverage for you under his policy. In turn, If you were to take vacation or a sabbatical and want someone to cover your patients under your policy, Medical Protective would provide coverage as well subject to an application."

I knew that.

I bet a lot of people who carry their own policy didn't realize they get "X" amount of weeks that they can hire a locums MD and have that locums MD covered under their policy. Of course, "coverage is subjected to an application."

The only concern with that situation is that you are relying on your friend to get a tail. If something happens and for some odd reason they decide not to get a tail then you are on the hook and don't have any way of fixing it. If you both had occurrence policies then not a problem.