Understanding Medical Malpractice Coverage
Medical malpractice insurance covers doctors and other professionals in the medical field for liability claims arising from their treatment of patients. There are two different policy forms from which to choose:
Occurrence Policies
Occurrence policies protect policyholders for alleged acts of malpractice which occur while the policy is in force, no matter when a claim against the doctor is reported to the insurance company.
Claims Made Policies
Claims made policies protect policyholders for alleged acts of malpractice which both occur and are reported to the insurance company while the claims made policy is in continuous force.
Because in medical/dental malpractice there is often a significant lag time between when a treatment was administered and the filing of a claim, claims made premiums are relatively low for the first few years. Claims made premiums are structured to be increased each year that the coverage is in continuous force, until the risk is considered to be a “mature” risk.
Please keep in mind that a practitioner who decides to cancel his/her claims made policy, in order to be completely protected for an unlimited amount of time for claims reported after the policy is cancelled, must purchase an Extended Reporting Policy or “Tail” Coverage. An Extended Reporting Policy will protect the practitioner for incidents that occurred while the policy was in force, but reported after the policy was cancelled.