The Role of Coverage By Medical Malpractice Insurance

Besides paying a large sum of money for medical malpractice insurance, physicians must learn the basic facts about the different kinds of coverage.

Policies promising coverage of claims

These protect the policy holder as long as the purchased policy was in effect at a specific point in time. Each policy needs to have been in effect when the doctor committed the alleged error. By the same token, it must have been in effect when the malpractice claim was made by the doctor’s former patient.

Policies promising coverage of occurrences

These protect the policy holder as long as the purchased policy was in effect at the time when the insured physician committed the alleged error. This type of policy covers the policy holder, regardless of the time when the patient came forward with a claim.

Not every policy comes with the same coverage limits.

Some policies have per-occurrence limits. Personal Injury Lawyer in Kitchener knows that these put a limit on the total amount of money that the insurance company will pay for a single claim. Other polices place an aggregated limit on coverage. These place a restriction on the total amount of money that the insurance company will provide a specific doctor/ policy holder during a given period of time.

Types of coverage

Hospitals normally buy an insurance that offers group coverage. A professional working in the medical field usually desires personal coverage. Some doctors pay for personal coverage while they remain working in a hospital. That serves to protect the hospital, if the insured doctor on the hospital’s staff happens to make a terrible mistake.

Exemptions that could free an insurance company of the need to protect a specific physician.

If a patient got hurt while a doctor was committing an illegal act, the medical malpractice insurance would not protect that doctor from the financial obligations that could arise, as a result of the patient’s lawsuit.

If a patient became injured while a physician was engaged in an act of misconduct, typically one that involved some form of sexual misbehavior, then the insurance would not offer protection from any possible lawsuit.

If a doctor had carried out some type of misrepresentation during the writing of the insurance policy, then the company that had agreed to include that false information in its policy would not protect the professional that had committed that fraudulent act.

For instance, suppose that a dermatologist claimed the ability to perform a type of plastic surgery, when he had not training in performance of such operations. Later, if the same dermatologist hurt a patient that had requested cosmetic surgery, the insurance company would refuse to offer financial protection. Understand that the removal of protection from the insurer would not end any attempted protections for the doctor’s reputation.