With so many changes underway in healthcare, and potentially millions more included in the patient population, the shortage of providers will have to be carried by Allied Healthcare Providers.
Many analysts predict that the only reasonable method of proving the extra medical care required of those covered by national healthcare reform is to train more physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Physician Extenders are already enabled to run remote clinics and satellite offices, they can help to implement telemedicine and enable access to physician specialists. Extenders are more affordable to pay, less expensive to train and highly qualified.
It stands to reason that as the population of those with health insurance grows, and the government discovers ways to pay for healthcare for so many more, that insurance carriers will have to figure out ways to insure physician assistants, nurse practitioners, optometrists, CNM’s CRNA’s, et. al.
The Doctors’ Insurance Agency has competitive solutions. We would like the opportunity to go to work for you.
The solution may be as simple as completing an allied healthcare application so that the ‘nexus’ between yourself and the physician (which is really where the risk lies) is protected. This nexus is referred to as the supervisory liability. This is covered by simply becoming an additional insured on the policy of the physician for whom you are working. The additional insured premium starts out at the low end of approximately $ 175.00 and increases to approximately $ 750 - $ 1,000 in the fifth year of maturing. There are also separate limits available through the physician’s insurance policy if that is preferred.
The limitation in these solutions is that the PA’s (or other Allied Health Care Provider’s coverage) is limited to the work that they do with that insured physician.
At this time, there is a move in the era of Universal healthcare and Accountable care organizations. The movement is that PA’s are taking full or partial ownership of companies. Physicians are fleeing to hospital, physician organizations, large closed panel healthcare organizations, large medical groups leaving a need for the small, affordable primary practitioner. This flight leaves an opening, an opportunity to staff (and, indeed to own (some clinic practices). The Doctors’ Insurance Agency’s PA NP, CRNA, EMT, etc. programs can insure these practitioners separately at affordable premiums.
An article in Crittenden recently reasoned this way: the policies are affordable:
These policies are essentially the physicians and surgeons policies’ tailored for PA’s. Rates are lower, mainly because the belief is that even with ownership stakes, the physician treating a patient will still be the responsible party in a lawsuit: the responsibility still ‘flows’ up hill.
Many Accountable Care Organizations may change this dynamic; . The structure of an ACO is something lie mass medical systems where hospitals and private practices share patient information freely and quickly to provide better care. What is not yet defined is that the private practices in the Accountable Care organizations structure need to be tethered to a building. If there is no need for Accountable Care Organizations to be tied to real estate, then there is room for flexibility, offices without walls, PA’s working remotely, supervised remotely. All of this could grow groups of affiliated PA’s contracting out their services to provide medical care to many different health care entities and organizations. It is actually an exciting time in healthcare. We would like to be part of your solutions.