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.
The virtual care insurance policies can cover all providers on one policy with a per claim limit that is priced according to the actual risk of service.
- Medical providers (physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, NPs/PAs, RNs; hospitals and other medical facilities; dentists and many other ancillary providers)
The problem many telemedicine organizations is the advice (well intentioned ) to protect investors and developers from the risk of malpractice connected to the providers by separating the provider malpractice from the web platform and organization.
This 'individual, per doctor' theory of premium calculus and development can break the budget during the sensitive first months of business.
The virtual care liability carriers are actively developing, underwriting and binding coverage that contemplates the following:
- Patient and provider matching (informational medical models, i.e. glucose, endocrine, neurology, cardiology, genetic informational services)
- Second opinions
- Follow-up care
- specialty care
- Delivery of remote care direct to patient
- Remote monitoring of patients
- Health products
- Web based information.
The Doctors Insurance agency has been writing Telemedicine Professional Liabilitypolicy since 2002.
We attended the American Telemedicine Association conference in 2007 and continued to be active in this niche.
In emerging markets (like Telemedicine) the insurance policies are always behind the curve working to understand and 'catch up' with the risk.
These medical professional liability carriers -- the 6 to 8 carriers that are active in telemedicine liability - are working hard to change their forms to match the risks.
London is ahead of this curve and have demonstrated this by acknowledging the presence of medical devices:
the 'wearables that we read and hear so much about'.
The devices are providing important medical data uploaded from patients/consumers to telemed websites for distribution to physicians, who then analyze diagnose and disseminate back to the patients.
These transmissions and analysis are providing important genetic and medical information informing decisions about lifestyle choices and medications.
The professional liability policy for telemedicine should include PRODUCTS FAILING TO PERFORM within the Professional Liability Limit so that Bodiliy Injury claims are covered from not just errors of diagnosis but errors of technology.
And, the pricing should contemplate the type of consultation, the places of the patients (interstate reach of your business) the projected annual revenue from consults and sales of devices and the number (and location) of your physicians.
These telemedicine organizations are different; a conventional clinic might have 10 full time (40 hour / week or more) policyholders) each rated by their own specialty paying thousands per year for a separate limit of medical malpractice insurance.
The telemedicine rosters might use 100 physicians: each representing .1 of a full-time equivalent physician.
Therefore the rating calculus does not contemplate number of doctors but rather the scope of the business consultation; the medical service provided and the annual revenue.
These are the metrics that develop the premium and the policies:
like emergency medical and hospitalist groups they are structured differently.
Agency brokerage and the carrier has to have experience and understanding of the dynamics