Medical malpractice coverage is an essential part of practicing medicine. Medical professional liability insurance, also called medical malpractice insurance, protects doctors and other licensed healthcare providers from liability for bodily injury, property damage, mental anguish, and other types of personal injury associated with wrongful practices.
A high percentage of a healthcare provider’s premium dollar goes toward defense and containment expenses. Unfortunately, medical malpractice insurers spend a great deal of money investigating and defending claims involving adverse patient outcomes that did not result from negligence.
Types of Malpractice Insurance
The basic medical malpractice insurance types are:
- Claims made: The policy in effect at the time the claim is reported responds to the loss.
- Occurrence made: This type of policy covers losses occurring during the policy period, regardless of when the claim is made, and even if the policy has been canceled when the claim is reported.
- Convertible claims made: This is a particular type of claims-made policy that allows the insured to convert claims-made coverage to occurrence coverage without paying for tail coverage.
Cost of Medical Malpractice Insurance
The cost of medical malpractice insurance varies, depending on a number of factors, including:
- Location of practice (costs vary from state to state)
- Type of practice (the risk of malpractice claims is higher for some specialties)
- Amount of coverage needed
Our agent at Gaddis Insurance Agency in Athens, Tennessee, can help you keep your medical malpractice insurance costs down while ensuring that you have the protection you need in today’s litigious environment.
