Telemedicine Malpractice Insurance is similar to Hospitalist Malpractice Insurance:
Growth, it is important to manage the bottomline
In the years and years of working in the medical malpractice insurance industry I have experienced many recurring issues in underwriting, changes in appetite (so to speak) of the companies. And on the other side, there are challenges administering medical groups - the cost of tail insurance which is triggered every time a physician cancels off of a claims made malpractice insurance policy, can quickly escalate the cost of managing a growing medical group’s expenses.
Even as the pace of large institutional medical practices rises (in fact, twice as many physicians now practice in these large groups from what was five years earlier) we are seeing a rush of entrepreneurial medical practices present to our agency coast to coast. Entrepreneurial medical practice models rely on competitive, affordable premiums.
Hospitalist, Urgent Care and Telemed all require flexible low cost tail policies
The Doctors’ Insurance Agency now has four specialized companies writing telemedicine, startup urgent care and concierge primary care practices; with underwriters who understand the risk, pricing and coverage conditions of these medical malpractice insurance policies.
Hospitalist, Telemedicine, Consulting and Concierge practices need occurrence policies that allow for continued reporting privileges after cancellation.
Telemedicine has been gradually growing.. (and more recently building on the healthcare scene, in many forms. Our agency, which specializes in medical and professional medical liability insurance, has seen telemedicine physicians apply increasingly in all specialties.
Today’s specialty, Pediatric Cardiology, last week, a group of Nephrologists providing acute care, and ICU support telemedically.
All these specialties share the need to provide easier access to care. Telemedicine is one area where healthcare seems to meet that elusive goal of increased access, quality care at an affordable price.
Independent Contractor Physician Liability Insurance (Telemedicine, Urgent Care, Hospitalist)
We provide medical malpractice insurance in every state in the country. We’re writing policies to protect individual physicians ‘moonlighting, working in the evenings and weekends, as independent contractors for medical groups, providing remote telemed services, filling schedules for urgent care groups and taking a shift for a hospitalist group.
Remote Consultations and Diagnosis
With high resolution monitors easy to use, patients ranging from a budget conscious and busy college student to a rural resident with no time nor interest to biopsy a bump, can access these skilled specialists from the smallest most distant room or clinic with the use of a smart phone or a web ex hook up.
But these practices can only grow if the malpractice insurance industry continues to respond with individual solo telemedicine policies and large well-capitalized institutional telemedicine groups that need to “on-board” physicians without costly delays or prohibitive tail premiums
Health Insurance Plans include low cost consults. Many health insurance plans are successfully incorporating telehealth into their benefit designs. More than 70% of doctor visits according to wellness Council of America can be handled safely and effectively using telemedicine technology.
The Doctors Insurance Agency has been insuring telemedicine for over 10 years starting with specialties that including radiology dermatology and psychiatry. The Doctors Insurance Agency has been putting together telemedicine medical professional malpractice plans that contemplate the need for large roster staffing and accurate pricing models. And The Doctors’ Company continues its work nationally in the area of Patient Safety. In Hospitalist medicine and now working on understanding Telehealth, The Doctors’ Company and the Doctors’ Insurance Agency work to provide telemedicine Malpractice insurance policy that scale as the groups take on new practitioners and contracts that provide the services necessary for these new benefit plans. By developing plans that provide tail insurance for telemedicine physicians that cancel, The Doctors Insurance Agency is part of this rapid growth and evolution.
These practices are working from a Patient Safety/Risk Management Attention to detail perspective. The Journal of American medicine surveyed eight thousand patients and compared in person doctor visits with telehealth visits and found that there are not significant differences in the quality of care. And equally importantly the results revealed that telehealth did not have higher rates of missed diagnosis or treatment failure.
We are happy to be working in this growing field and look forward to helping you find the right coverage.