Question for Lawyers

[socaintexas]

I know that there are quite a few lawyers here, so I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I am a physician and I have some questions regarding malpractice insurance. I am currently insured through the center where I work, but I want to make sure that I have adequate coverage. What type of lawyer handles this?

[mctlaw]

I have experience in med mal defense but you're not really asking a legal question here. Are you concerned you are not covered for certain acts, or that you do not adequate amounts of coverage as is provided by your employer? Perhaps I can be more helpful if you can give more specifics.

[Sillygirl]

:wavey: Another physician here - do you have a state medical society, or a national organization that you're part of: ACC, ACP, ACS? I have found them to be very helpful for questions like this. If you're a specialist, start with the national organization for your specialty.

[bubbaray]

You should PM BillK, he's a broker.

This is NOT a legal question IMO.

[Melbel]

There could be some legal issues relating how best to protect personal assets in the event that there is a claim that exceeds med mal coverage. By way of example, in Florida homesteads (primary residence) are protected which means that doctors in high risk areas tend to live in VERY nice houses. While your question focuses primarily on insurance coverages issues, to be safe, you may want to consider looking for an attorney specializing in Health Care law (a transactional attorney, not a litigator). HTH!

[bubbaray]

Well, OK, looking at the structure of a practice broadly, yeah, legal questions arise. But, I'm a lawyer and no way would I get insurance advice from a lawyer. I would get practice structure advice (ie., incorporation, tax structures, etc) from a business lawyer. But not the insurance advice.

[socaintexas]

Thanks, guys. I hope that it has not come across that I am asking for free legal advice, as I agree this is not a legal question. I am a psychiatrist at a community mental health center, where I have worked for 10 years. Let me preface this by saying that I have no plans on leaving the center soon, nor do I have any reason to believe that any litigation is on the horizon. I had a conversation with some folks that piqued my interest into inquiring further into our coverage. We have a claims-made professional liability policy that covers our whole center. The doctors are not named specifically on the policy. I had a discussion with our "expert" at the center who negotiates our contracts and insurance, and needless to say it headed south. After a debate about the difference between a claims-made and an occurence policy, where he totally had the two backwards and got pretty nasty with me when I printed a chart off explaining the difference, I decided that I probably need to verify coverage independent of him. I called an agent with the company that provides our coverage, and am not totally comfortable with the response I received from him, either.

Basically, I was told that the claims-made policy will cover any physician that has ever worked for the center (it is retroactive), as long as the center maintains the policy. My question was why would a claims-made policy continue to cover physicians that no longer work there without tail coverage. I was told that I could not purchase tail coverage based on this policy, since it is not an individual policy. The insurance agent hem-hawed when I asked if the policy would cover a doctor no longer employed by the center if that doctor was sued individually (related to his/her scope of practice at the center), and not as a part of the center lawsuit. He said that scenario had never happened. I find that hard to believe. I hope that I am being overly cautious and that everything is ok, but I feel like I need to have someone independent of our center and our insurance agent review our policy and advise me about the coverage as it relates to me independently. I guess I just assumed that a lawyer with knowledge in that field would be the best one with whom to consult. However, I don't know what type of lawyers are "in that field", and that is what I was hoping that the lawyer folks could advise me on. Sillygirl, I have looked at the APA (American Psychiatric Association) guidelines, but I cannot find an answer specific to the question.

[mctlaw]

What you are looking for is a coverage specialist. You will need to obtain a copy of the policy for the lawyer to review. Most of the coverage attorneys work directly for the insurance companies but you should be able to get a referral from from the local bar association. HTH.

[socaintexas]

Thanks mctlaw! That is exactly what I needed to know. You guys are awesome!