Per diem work on a per diem malpractice policy

[xtina0]

I was wondering what you guys thought a competitive hourly rate for per diem work should be for a busy metropolitan are hospital. This is a place where I was previously employed hence I think it would be easy as I know all the ropes.

I would only be covering 1-2 shift per month as I have another steady gig. This would pay me on a 1099 and would require my own malpractice policy. Nationwide anesthesia provides this at about $180 a day.

I'm also nervous about getting malpractice coverage from a less known company, I don't want to get burnt for a couple extra grand per month.

Do you guys think this is worth it? Should I look for per diem work elsewhere. I also don't want to go do work at an outpatient facility that doesn't have backup or means incase stuff hits the fan.

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[deleted875186]

How does this malpractice policy work? You tell them a month ahead of time I need malpractice for these one or two days and pay for 2days at the rate you mentioned above? Seems strange, have not heard of anyone have a policy like that, maybe other people know more about it.

I am familiar with slot coverage, employer will typically by one policy for a bunch or per diem people.

 

[xtina0]

How does this malpractice policy work? You tell them a month ahead of time I need malpractice for these one or two days and pay for 2days at the rate you mentioned above? Seems strange, have not heard of anyone have a policy like that, maybe other people know more about it.

I am familiar with slot coverage, employer will typically by one policy for a bunch or per diem people.

yes exactly I let them know anytime before the date I need and they send me a contract with the agreed dates.

 

[narcotics999]

Who provides you with malpractice insurance? National Anesthesia, a staffing company?

If you plan to do per diem long term, why not try reputable malpractice insurance company (eg, medpro to name one)

180$/hour is ****. Why don't you contract with the group directly?

 

[dhb]

180$/hour

180$/day is for the insurance policy

 

[deleted875186]

180/day is 65k per year, seems expensive unless it also includes tail coverage.

 

[pgg]

12 years ago I got my own policy for part time PRN work as a moonlighter away from my active duty Navy day job. I got a claims made policy through The Doctors Company. I think they offer policies for people in most states (I was able to take mine from California to Virginia).

This was a policy that covered me for less than 1/4 FTE, and it was cheap. First year premium was about $1600 I think. At maturity at 5 years it was something like $2700. This was for a $1M/$3M policy in CA. In Virginia I think it was $2.25M/$6.75M.

When I got rid of the policy, for tail they initially quoted me 240% of the undiscounted final year premium ... roughly $2700 x 4 x 2.4 = $26K.

I think $180/day is ridiculous. BUT ... I work some locums via an agency right now, and in talking to my agent there, she said that my malpractice insurance costs them $18/hour (granted this is occurrence coverage). Caveat, this was in the context of her explaining why they couldn't pay me more money at one particular hospital that allegedly wouldn't pay more than $290/h to the agency.

 

[deleted875186]

12 years ago I got my own policy for part time PRN work as a moonlighter away from my active duty Navy day job. I got a claims made policy through The Doctors Company. I think they offer policies for people in most states (I was able to take mine from California to Virginia).

This was a policy that covered me for less than 1/4 FTE, and it was cheap. First year premium was about $1600 I think. At maturity at 5 years it was something like $2700. This was for a $1M/$3M policy in CA. In Virginia I think it was $2.25M/$6.75M.

When I got rid of the policy, for tail they initially quoted me 240% of the undiscounted final year premium ... roughly $2700 x 4 x 2.4 = $26K.

I think $180/day is ridiculous. BUT ... I work some locums via an agency right now, and in talking to my agent there, she said that my malpractice insurance costs them $18/hour. Caveat, this was in the context of her explaining why they couldn't pay me more money at one particular hospital that allegedly wouldn't pay more than $290/h to the agency.

Seems expensive for tail coverage for less than 1/4 FTE.

 

[pgg]

Seems expensive for tail coverage for less than 1/4 FTE.

That's what I thought. I didn't pay it.

That may sound dumb, but at the time I cancelled the policy, I had only done a bare handful of days of work under that policy for the previous ~2-3 years. About a year of that time I was deployed and did nothing. Then I paid the premium for another year when I didn't work there at all. I had no bad or even questionable outcomes. It was a risk to go tailless. But it turned out OK. It's possible that if I'd argued harder we could've agreed on a lower tail premium.

 

[deleted875186]

That's what I thought. I didn't pay it.

That may sound dumb, but at the time I cancelled the policy, I had only done a bare handful of days of work under that policy for the previous ~2-3 years. About a year of that time I was deployed and did nothing. Then I paid the premium for another year when I didn't work there at all. I had no bad or even questionable outcomes. It was a risk to go tailless. But it turned out OK. It's possible that if I'd argued harder we could've agreed on a lower tail premium.

Interesting ….. is there a limit in the amount of time to file a Med malpractice suit?

 

[deleted875186]

That's what I thought. I didn't pay it.

That may sound dumb, but at the time I cancelled the policy, I had only done a bare handful of days of work under that policy for the previous ~2-3 years. About a year of that time I was deployed and did nothing. Then I paid the premium for another year when I didn't work there at all. I had no bad or even questionable outcomes. It was a risk to go tailless. But it turned out OK. It's possible that if I'd argued harder we could've agreed on a lower tail premium.

More I think of this the more insane it is. You could keep the policy for an additional 9 years for the price of the tail coverage. Absolutely insane.

Will another insurance company offer the tail coverage for you if they did provide the original policy?

 

[pgg]

Interesting ….. is there a limit in the amount of time to file a Med malpractice suit?

Yes, it varies by state but there's a statute of limitations that's a couple years. It was a year for California and two years for Virginia.

The main exceptions to that SOL are fraud, and injuries that are discovered later (think retained surgical instruments that are discovered years later). At the time I dropped the policy without tail I was outside the SOL already. I didn't do peds or OB under that policy. I though the risk was low and the quoted tail outrageous.

 

[pgg]

More I think of this the more insane it is. You could keep the policy for an additional 9 years for the price of the tail coverage. Absolutely insane.

Will another insurance company offer the tail coverage for you if they did provide the original policy?

There's such a thing as nose coverage that you can get from a new insurer to cover prior acts during a claims-made period covered by another insurer. Since then I've just had occurrence coverage through locums agencies or hospitals I contracted with directly so I never really looked into it.

For the most part I think you can't buy standalone tail coverage? And nose coverage implies you're now buying an ongoing policy from the new company.