In an article pulled from the San Jose Mercury News (.com), Steve Jacob warns that the new health reform law, which is planning to create more insured Americans, will not mean much to patients without providers to care for them.  Nurse Practitioners, Physicians’ Assistants, R.N’s, CNM’s and other Allied health Providers will work to make up the gap between the providers and the patients. If there is no affordable medical malpractice insurance for these allied healthcare providers, then the increased patients will still not receive the care that they need. Our Insurance Agency in Northern California continues to work hard to develop affordable premium discounts and insurance programs for Nurse Practitioners, Colon Hydrotherapists, Physician Assistants and other care providers. .  Nurse Practitioners, pay between $ 1,000 and $ 2,500 for Occurrence Coverage, which means that they are free to cancel and move on to another career opportunity, Physician Assistants will need to consider ...

There are more and more physicians lately working to bring their services to other physicians, patients, facility directors and others beyond the conventional ‘trading areas’. And, the challenge is that the malpractice insurance carriers providing coverage to physicians require that the doctor establish a proper physician to patient relationship.  This relationship is usually established by a face to face, in person history and physician and proper examination of the records and any pertinent drug interactions, conflicts or regimens. Once that relationship has been established, then the physicians  are a bit more free to communicate with telemedicine or the internet than if they just start the relationship that way.  This is not to say that physicians cannot interact with the public using the internet, It is just a fine line,  the doctor should not establish the relationship only online.  Online allows for disseminating ideas and valuable information of medical scienc ...

So, we thought we’d share some of what Michael Cohen, Esq. shares about Med Spa Laws for doctors and patients.  Plastic Surgeons, Dermatologists, Otolaryngologists have for some time now added boutique, affordable and life changing procedures to their practices in the form of these ‘medispa’ services.  This is not only a way to nurture relationships with clients, this is a revenue generating gateway to more procedures.  The Medispa procedures allows some reticent patients to try some less invasive, less expensive procedures prior to the surgical procedure that they may have been really hoping (and saving) for. There are some unique risks, and there are some risk management issues that patients and physicians should think about.  The Doctors’ Insurance Agency provides competitive, resourceful and comprehensive insurance coverage for medispa’s Dermatologists and Plastic Surgeons (among many other specialties),  Recently, I read Michael Cohen’s (esq) ...

Patient satisfaction equal for physician, hospital care The Doctors’ Insurance Agency, working with the number one physician owned medical malpractice insurance carrier and working with a team of innovative underwriters have developed a program of insurance that is perfect for medical groups that need the flexibility to recruit physicians from out of state without incurring the prohibitive and costly tail encumbrances.  Any physician who has tried to recruit physicians from out of state (or even within the same area code understands that paying tail to a current insurance company, or the concern of whether tail is provided by the recruiting medical group can be a ‘deal breaker’ for many physicians …both sides of the business relationship are and should be concerned with this insurance detail….the employer and the employee. With the RVU or per patient rated medical malpractice insurance, hybrid, claims/occurrence made coverage, your group can recruit by providing prior ac ...

As a direct medical malpractice insurance representative to the nation’s largest physician owned medical malpractice insurance carrier, one of the many  benefits is their wealth of resources.  Last night I experienced an example of those many resources as I attended (well, actually our agency – The Doctors of Northern California Insurance Agency hosed a continuing medical education event in Walnut Creek. Dana Faber, one of our patient safety experts presented claims in Plastic Surgery.  During an interactive presentation, she shared some of the findings of several plastic surgery claims studied recently by our panel of expert claims reviewers.  One of the goals of the claims review panels is to share information about what elements of the surgery, consultation, service, communication, documentation, follow up, etc could have been handled differently and then, importantly to share them. Similarly, our expert Patient Safety Team recently studied the tendency, temptation, trend ...

As a representative of The Doctors’ Company, the nations largest physician owned medical malpractice insurance Carrier, we have access to an abundance of information which may help physicians navigate the new risks and technologies used by so many practices and facilities.  Some of this may be of assistance to you as you continue to learn about the risks of medical records and the abundance of information available in them.  The Doctors’ Company, represented by The Doctors’ Insurance Agency includes Data Breach, Information Security insurance up to $ 50,000 of expense and defense with each medical malpractice insurance policy sold.  Data breach insurance does not cost anything at the first level, $ 50,000 of defense. The Cyber guard insurance program is included with your policy and can protect you against the first party liability that comes with the increased responsibility imposed by the recent Hitech act recently added to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountabil ...

Statements on Telemedicine: We have many physicians, formally, or informally engaging in the practice of telemedicine to some degree.  Pediatricians may ask a worried parent to send a cell phone picture of a puncture wound to a child’s hand due to a neighborhood dog bite; a young student away at college worried about a skin rash may send a clear picture to a local dermatologist through a secure, organized and medical protocol driven web portal, an in-home care agency may use physician assistants and nurses to examine patients communicating to a physician through store and forward technology,  acute care and Intensive Care Units use telemedicine to transmit vital statistics to Intensivists, Adult care and pulmonology specialists to treat the old and very ill.  The Department of Health in New York put out an article recently  on this important topic. And, I know that our agency can help to insure this risk;  we just want to carefully define your method of establishing and contin ...

This is a persistent question, debated widely even amongst physicians who you might assume all to be unilaterally in favor of tort reforms. Recently Med Scape Online News published this analysis.  The Doctors’ Company works hard to have a voice in the state legislatures to advocate for effective tort reform. Some of this work is paying off.  Actually, there are many victories on this front.  When looking at the medical liability landscape, doctors will see some recent victories fending off tort reform challenges. California's $250,000 noneconomic damages cap -- long a protected, almost sacred standard of tort reform,- was upheld by an appellate court in September 2011. West Virginia's cap also experienced a recent judicial ‘win’ for tort reform, declaring constitutional by the state's high court in June 2011. These reforms are credited with keeping doctors who otherwise would have fled to a better liability climate have stayed put…While, again, the subject of a lot ...

The Doctors’ Insurance Agency proudly represents The Doctors’ Company for Medical Malpractice Insurance in California and in other States. Over the years, our physician insurance agency has focused on other ‘complementary products’ so that our physicians have the coverage they need to manage the risk of their professional and personal investments. I say professional investment because, of course, a medical malpractice lawsuit, no matter how non-meritorious it may be, can bring about the effect of a ‘shut down’ in business; There are companies now just specializing in keeping physicians good name clear on yelp, or other internet services which invite consumer comment online.  So, The Doctors’ Company has responded with not only the first Administrative Medical Expense Insurance Protection (to cover the billing and med board inquiries), but now, we respond with Cyber guard, a $ 50,000 medical defense insurance addition to the medical malpractice insurance policy.& ...

Medical Spa’s generally cost $ 5,000 - $ 7,500 annual premium for 1 Million limit of liability. And, as low risk as most physicians perceive these centers to be; well, they are not always. Burns from Lasers, nerve damage due to needle penetration, abrasions, cuts, and other allegations of disappointed expectations. Working with a variety of specialty specific insurers and risk managers, The Doctors’ Insurance Agency works for you; to find placement with the right Carrier and premium that is representative of your practice profile.  Generally, the premium is a function of three components: 1)       annual revenue 2)       number of people providing the services 3)       the type of services provided. If you have five nurses and three Aestheticians, the premium will be more than if you have two nurses and one aesthetician. Consolidating your medispa so that you have a few people working longer ho ...