Telemedicine Professional Liability Insurance grows
With the increase of requests for Telemedicine Professional liability insurance, The Doctors Insurance Agency, a national healthcare liability insurance agency, is seeing firsthand the growth in the change that technology is bringing to the practice of medicine. Every iteration of healthcare service and delivery are beginning to explore the convenience and affordable use of Tele-medical technology. From neurology, radiology, intensive care, pulmonology and primary care, real time telemedicine is increasing access to patients. Prior to these innovations patients could not afford the time and did not have financial resources to obtain this kind of specialty care.
Competitive minimum premiums for startup telemedicine groups
The Doctors Insurance Agency continues to work with The Doctors Company and other specialty surplus lines carriers to bring the most competitive and creative Telemedicine professional liability policies to our clients. It is interesting to note that in spite of first year premiums of less than $7,000 annually, the coverage is still robust, comprehensive and flexible. There are risk management services and expert developed claims management services with The Doctors Company and other carriers to bring these fledgling companies forward to flourish. Just as with hospitalist and emergency medical groups, telemedicine organizations needs to have the flexibility to on-board physicians without the certainty of knowing how long they will stay.
Rolling IBNR (incurred but not reported insurance protection)
We are using rolling tail policies to provide ongoing coverage to the physicians who just decided this work is not for them, and must cancel off of the roster providers. An organization cannot continue if there is an expensive cost of tail triggered each time a physician leaves.
Mobil Apps are trending:
Telemedicine is now going Mobil (along with search and general use of technology). With over 100,000 mobile health apps now available—in addition to many new tools that allow physicians to remotely monitor their patients’ conditions—physicians now have to handle an increasing amount of constant data and patient information that they did not have in the past.
Patients are using mobile apps to monitor their important levels: everything from weight to blood pressure, adherence to medication regimen and blood sugar levels: Although only 16 percent of healthcare professionals currently use mobile apps with their patients, 46 percent plan to do so in the next five years..
The increase use of electronic health record management storage and systems dictates/mandates that your medical malpractice insurance include important data breach liability protection. The Doctors Insurance Agency will work to ensure that our medical professional policies include sub-limits or higher protections for the first party liabilities that result when mobile devices, laptops and tablets are lost or stolen and the data stored by your organization or its affiliates is breached.