Malpractice Categories and Cost Savings

New to Practice Physicians
As a new-to-practice physician, you have many choices. This is especially true with your medical malpractice insurance. Your malpractice insurance rate will depend on a number of factors including your specialty, county you practice in, and your practice profile. Coverages can also be offered as a resident, intern, or fellow.

Special Discounts Available for New to Practice Doctors
There is very good news for you! Most medical malpractice insurance companies offer new-to-practice special discounts. These special discounts could be as significant as 50%.

Varieties of Polices
There's two basic forms of insurance coverage available in the market. Most insurance coverage is normally on a claims made basis. Coverage can also be written on an occurrence basis. Here are the basics of the two different types of professional liability insurance:

Claims-Made Insurance
Coverage that requires that a claim be made, and also for the insured party to report the claim to the insurance company during the coverage period. This type of insurance is limited to liability regarding those claims that take place from incidents that are reported to the insurance company while the policy is in force. A claims-made insurance policy is in force from the starting date associated with the initial policy period (the retroactive date) and remains in force between that date through each subsequent renewal. When a claims-made policy is terminated, future claims due to happenings that took place during the policy period are not covered. Tail-coverage may be added to the insured party’s insurance policy in order to insure beyond the date of termination of said policy.

Occurrence Coverage
Provides insurance coverage based on when the actual accident or injury actually takes place; thus, claims arising from accidents which occurred within the policy’s effective dates are covered through the policy, irrespective of when the claim is actually made against the Insured or introduced to the insurance provider.

Maturation Factors/Step Factors
If you have a claims made policy, your premium will increase annually on renewal for the initial 5-7 years. The initial year premium is quite low, which is normally because of the fact that you do not maintain a retroactive patient load from which claims could arise. As each year moves on, the prospect of a claim from past services performed increases, therefore the actual premium will increase. This happens until the mature rate is reached.

With regard to occurrence policies, the rate starts off with the mature rate on the very first day you pay for insurance coverage.

Individual Physician - Preferred Risk
Medical malpractice insurance providers may treat an applicant as being a preferred risk in the event that they meet specific underwriting guidelines. The particular guidelines are dependant on the actual applicant's medical area of expertise, credentials in addition to a favorable medical malpractice claims record. The difference between a preferred and standard risk physician, is usually that preferred risk physicians have specified characteristics which place them within a special system backed by the insurance carrier.

Available varieties of discount rates can consist of:

Part-time Physician
Medical Society Membership
Claims-Free Discount
Risk Management Course Participation
Practice Profile
Qualification
Employee Credentials
Education and Training
Patient Load
Reduction of particular procedures normally performed by doctors of your specialty

The maximum amount of annual discounts that can be applied to your policy is 40%.

Individual Physician - Standard Risk
Applicants that do not qualify as preferred risks and are not regarded as being special risks will fall into the standard risk profile. The majority of applicants will fit into this category of coverage.

Available forms of discounts include:

Part-time Physician
Medical Society Membership
Claims-Free Discount
Risk Management Course Participation
Practice Profile
Qualification
Employee Credentials
Education and Training
Patient Load
Reduction of particular procedures normally performed by doctors of your specialty

The maximum amount of annual discounts that can be applied to your policy is 40%.

Individual Physician - Special Risk
Applicants that are engaged in a unique type of medical practice, or have a history of claims, whether at fault or not, or have been canceled or declined by other medical malpractice insurers or otherwise do not meet the underwriting criteria for preferred or standard risks are considered special risks.

Madison is known for our ability to help find coverage for “hard to place” physicians and facilities that have adverse claims history, have been canceled or non-renewed and do not qualify for the Standard or Preferred marketplace.

Medical Groups
Madison has the experience working with medical groups of all sizes. Even with varying claims history for physicians within the group, Madison can help create solutions to limit your cost.