Medical Malpractice Insurers - Why Doctors Need To Protect Themeselves

Medical malpractice insurance is a necessity for doctors these days due to all the people suing whenever anything goes wrong, whether or not the doctor was actually at fault. The large amounts given in financial settlements and awarded in medical malpractice suits could bankrupt a doctor without medical malpractice insurance.

Medical malpractice insurers include Medical Protective, ProMutual Group, Princeton Insurance, MD Advantage, Professional Casualty Associates, Conventus, Darwin, Positive Physicians Insurance Exchange, and AIG.

When a doctor begins to practice medicine he or she needs to purchase medical malpractice insurance from one of the medical malpractice insurers. The cost has risen lately, and doctors would be well advised to use a broker to compare the rates from multiple medical malpractice insurers to find the best policy for them.

Medical malpractice insurers offer two types of coverage, occurrence insurance and claims-made coverage. Occurrence insurance covers any claims from incidences that occur during the time of coverage, regardless of when the claim is made. Claims-made coverage only covers those claims made during the time of the policy.

Medical malpractice insurance is a major expense for doctors. Medical malpractice insurers have increased the rates for malpractice insurance in order to try to maintain profits even with the current high litigation costs and large amounts being rewarded in medical malpractice suits.

Medical malpractice insurers charge different premiums for doctors in different areas, as well as for doctors in different specialties. The medical malpractice insurers charge the highest rates in Florida, Nevada, Michigan, the District of Columbia, Ohio, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Connecticut, Illinois and New York.

The highest risk specialties such as emergency medicine physicians, general surgeons, neurosurgeons, OB/GYNs, orthopedic surgeons, and radiologists are charged higher premiums for malpractice insurance by the medical malpractice insurers due to the higher rate of claims against doctors in these fields.

Medical malpractice insurers currently charge such high rates for OB/GYNs that there are a lot of doctors are leaving the specialty or not entering into the specialty, making a shortage of OB/GYNs a major problem in some areas. Besides the high premiums charged by medical malpractice insurers, these doctors are also less satisfied with the practice of medicine since they were able to make less money, didn't have as good a relations with patients, their autonomy was limited, and their practices had to cut back on care to cut costs.

Currently, there are discussions between public policy leaders and medical malpractice insurers on possible ways to lower the costs of medical malpractice insurance. Some of the ideas that have been proposed by the medical malpractice insurers and public policy leaders are to emphasize risk management, taking action against the few doctors who have multiple judgements against them, encourage disclosure of medical errors, and create special courts to handle malpractice suits.

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