When Hospitalist Medicine was first introduced around the early nineties, medical malpractice companies were unsure of how to underwrite, rate and manage the risk.

Over time, by taking chances and using internal medicine rating equivalents, the specialty proved that quality of care was improving and claims were not presenting at the rate anticipated.

Hospital administrators, surgeons in the community, and primary care groups all began to partner with the specialty. The elusive goals of increasing access to care, improving quality and decreasing cost seemed to be achievable, at least in theory. One of the challenges for hospitalist groups was determining how to sustain their business model and how to provide Medical Malpractice Insurance.

This staffing responsibility more closely, if not exactly, resembled emergency medical groups. These groups are committed to providing a medical doctor trained in hospitalist medicine to be physically present at all times at these facilities.

The Doctors Insurance Agency provides Telemedicine Malpractice Insurance.

Before telemedicine really took off in the light of national and statewide shelter-in-place orders, it was already growing exponentially.

In a recent study that examined health care payer claims between 2005 and 2017, health insurance members made almost 385,000 telemedicine visits, and usage climbed from a minuscule 0.02 visits per 1,000 members in 2005 to 6.57 visits in 2017.

Now the COVID-19 pandemic has put telehealth in the spotlight as an important solution for delivering needed care outside of a hospital or doctor's office.

Effective telemedicine relies on effective and successful technology, medical devices and professional diagnosis.  Therefore, telemedical malpractice policies must cover the physicians and the organization against claims in the event of technology or professional failure. Additionally, the policies must contain network security and cyber data liability limits.

The Doctors' Insurance Agency provides telemedicine medical professional liability insurance for physicians in all specialties.

Whether you're developing a concierge practice or working to help patients with prescription addictions, chronic pain and disease management, The Doctors’ Insurance Agency, working with The Doctors’ Company, Lloyds’, Admiral, and GenStar (Berkshire, Hathaway), can find liability insurance that is a good fit for your practice.

As Dr. David Feldman, Chief Medical Officer of The Doctors’ Company, wrote recently:

Telemedicine has been part of the standard delivery of care for years, but barriers to getting started kept many practices from offering telemedicine visits.

A confusing patchwork of regulations, lack of electronic healthcare record (EHR) interoperability, and other obstacles found many practices deciding that telemedicine was just more trouble than it was worth.

Now, (and over the last five years, that has been changing;  and, then recently: The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has forced the sudden adoption of telemedicine by many practices and systems accompanied by government and payer emergency measures that make providing virtual care easier.

The Doctors Insurance Agency started in 1988 by providing exclusive Medical Malpractice Insurance for solo, small and large groups of physicians. 

Through working hard to develop discounted premium programs with hospitals and medical societies, we gained a clear appreciation of the importance of sustainable and resourceful liability solutions. 

We have worked with malpractice providers to develop special coverage and premiums. We can extend separate limits to 

• Gastroenterology/General and Colonrectal Surgery Groups’ Endoscopy Centers
• Outpatient Surgery Centers Owned/shared by Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Groups; and
• MRI/X-ray, Physical Therapy and Surgery Centers for orthopedic groups

Organizations involved in the provision of telemedicine will normally need at least two insurance policies, (Tech and Cyber as well as Medical Professional Liability) and often more (General, Products Completed)  to cover  its varied exposures.

London Carriers (as well as some innovative US Carriers have moved ahead of the market place Developing true Virtual Care medical professional liability insurance that contemplate all risks and provide ample limits of insurance to cover them...

These virtual care policies  avoid the potential gaps in coverage that can arise with cobbling together a solution. 

Nephrology Medical Professional Liability Policies

If you are working in a nephrology group, there are a few important issues you should consider to reduce your overall cost of managing medical professional liability insurance.

The first issue is the matter of medical directorship. Nephrology groups will sometimes have responsibilities to serve as medical directors at dialysis centers (there are also medical foundations with ownership interests in dialysis centers.) Additionally, medical directors can present at outpatient clinics and hospitals.

Medical malpractice insurance policies normally carry a separate limit protecting the healthcare organization employees and non-medical doctor providers, these entity policies can extend and be endorsed to include coverage for medical director work.

Telemedicine is defined as the remote delivery of healthcare services, whether they are medical consultations using videoconferencing, mobile apps, store and forward technology offering health assessments or lifestyle counseling. Technology can assist in the delivery of information and shorten the distance between the patient and the provider. Telemedicine can be classified into three main categories: remote patient monitoring, store and forward or interactive communication. Each of these has their own different risk profiles. 

A survey last year found that a quarter of adults in the United States don’t have a regular doctor. Some are wondering if they need one at all. Telemedicine can provide much of what conventional visits to clinics provide without the hassle of leaving work. taking time off, and struggling with traffic.

Healthcare experts say that the changing fragmented nature of healthcare is why people still need someone to help them navigate their healthcare. This is the traditional role of primary care physicians like family doctors, but arguably those health care providers do not always need face-to-face visits to do their job and to do it well.

Where do you  start to apply for and obtain medical malpractice insurance if you are going to practice telemedicine.

Start by listing the Telemedicine Organization address and describe your niche, describe the medical service that your innovation is bringing.
The underwriters need some ‘data points’ to assign a premium to your telemedicine organization.
The organization is the Named Insured, or as I like to call it, the anchor of the medical malpractice insurance policy;  From this ‘center’ of the policy, the insurance carriers build, sort of from the inside out:  they consider the total number of telehealth consultations provided by your physicians and mid levels,
the type of medical service,  the location of the physician and the location of the patient and the annual revenue

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This is one of the most commonly asked questions of by our Telemedicine Specialists. Understandably so…because….One of the most important costs to contain as you develop and implement your telemedicine organization is the mandatory (and sometimes prohibitively high) cost of medical professional liability insurance. And, one of the most common obstacles in the way of recruiting new physicians to the organization is the concerns about covering their Tail.