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Malpractice Insurance 101

What is Medical Malpractice Insurance?

Medical malpractice insurance, also known as “Professional Liability Insurance,” covers a healthcare professional in a myriad of ways. While each policy is different, they all cover many of the same things, including:

• Coverage for each claim
• Aggregate coverage for all claims
• Coverage of defense costs
• Deposition representation
• License protection
• 24-hour coverage (typically only provided by insurance you purchase yourself)

Some companies may also include:

• Assault coverage
• Personal liability coverage
• Personal injury coverage
• Medical payments
• Coverage of damage to others’ property

There are two kinds of medical malpractice insurance – Occurance and Claims Made.

• Occurance coverage is very rare these days, so consider yourself lucky if you have it! Occurance coverage covers incidents during the policy period no matter when the claim is reported. For example, if you had occurance coverage from 1995-1996 and yesterday a claim was filed against you for an incident that happened in May of 1995, you would be covered by the insurance agency (or employer) whose policy you held at the time.

• Claims Made coverage is offered by most employers and insurance companies. With Claims Made coverage, the incident must have happened and be reported to the insurance company while the policy is in force. Once the policy is ended, so had the coverage. This means that if the above incident happened, you would not be covered. However, you would be covered if the claim was reported in May of 1995 when it occurred.