Professional Liability and Malpractice Insurance
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The Importance of Professional Liability and Malpractice
Insurance!
By: Danni R., CMA, CCMA, CMAA
One of the most important employment benefits
is good malpractice and professional liability insurance. Every
medical assistant should be encouraged to make sure they have adequate
insurance coverage when working in a medical office, walk in clinic,
or any other treatment facility. Even though medical assistants
are dependent practitioners and work under the supervision of the
physician, and the physician is responsible for their actions, it
does not exonerate them from risk of individual liability. It is
not enough to accept insurance under the employer’s policy
as a rider, and assume this is adequate protection in case of a
lawsuit. Medical assistants should insist on their own personal
policy, either through their employer or on their own.
The reason is simple: Each healthcare provider
is responsible for his or her own negligent acts, since malpractice
is defined as "the negligent act of a person with specialized
training and education." This is not to say, that medical assistants
go out there and act irresponsible, doing rush jobs, and incompetent
work. Having worked side by side with many highly skilled, professionally
trained individuals in different healthcare
and medical facilities, I understand very well what medical assistants
do and how they strive to deliver quality care to patients. Mistakes,
accidents, oversights, injuries, no matter how skilled and careful,
can happen even to the very best. They usually occur when least
expected and inadvertently cause harm to a patient!
The requirements for a successful suit in
negligence include:
1. A duty requiring a person to conform to a standard of conduct
that protects others from unreasonable risk of harm.
2. A breach of that duty (i.e., the person's failure to conform
to the standard of conduct.)
3. A causal connection between the breach of the duty and the resulting
injury.
4. A resulting injury or damage which results in measurable physical,
emotional or economic harm.
It is not true that medical assistants are
not being sued! Respondeat superior is a long established doctrine
that applies when a "master" acts through the "servant"
to accomplish the master's task. The actions of the servant are
imputed to the master. If the servant acts negligently, the servant
is directly responsible for the negligence, while the master is
vicariously liable for the servant's actions.
Tort or negligence law imposes a minimum
level of due care on all persons in their interactions with others,
including people who choose to volunteer. Negligence is generally
considered to be doing something that a person of ordinary prudence
would not have done under similar circumstances.
Public education is a two-edged sword. As
more patients, their friends, and malpractice lawyers become aware
of the role of the medial assistant, they also see a potential malpractice
target if they believe they have received a poor standard of care.
Injured patients, either on their own, or encouraged by others,
wind up taking recourse to the courts. Situations involving injuries
or damages that generations ago would have been ignored by the injured
person are now regularly the basis for lawsuits. Liability is a
major risk for professionals such as medical assistants. Current
legal theory of medical malpractice dictates that as many people
as possible will be named in a suit. This can and does include medical
assistants as well.
Regardless whether a medical assistant is
covered under the employer’s policy, he or she may still be
liable for his or her own negligence and may still be liable for
all or part of a plaintiff’s award or settlement. In some
cases the employee may have to compensate the employer who has paid
damages to the claimant. A medical assistant can either assume that
liability him or herself or buy an insurance policy to transfer
that risk. Insurance companies accept the transfer of risk in exchange
for the payment of premiums.
Therefore, whether as a student on externship,
or as a professional medical assistant working under a physician,
or on your own, get your own malpractice and professional liability
insurance as soon as possible! It is really worth the cost and effort,
and apropos cost, it doesn't cost much at all!
Should you ever decide you want to volunteer,
or work at a part-time position, or even do private duty, since
many medical assistants have a background as former home health
aides or CNAs, in additional to your full-time position, an individual
policy covers you for your duties in both positions and circumstances.
If you accept a position and then decide you want to take a position
elsewhere, your individual coverage follows you to your new position,
even if your previous employer paid the premiums for your coverage.
However, realize that your previous employer may request reimbursement!
There even is a way to eliminate gaps in
coverage by requesting prior acts coverage. This gives the insured
retroactive coverage to cover those events that may have already
occurred but have not yet been reported. I bet most of us didn't
even know that!
How much you pay for your insurance premium
depends on your responsibilities, the location of your practice
setting and the limits of liability you choose. If your employer
insists that you are to be covered under their policy (rider) and
you can't afford to purchase your own personal policy, ask the employer
for a copy of the certificate of insurance for your analysis. Here
is a checklist of items to use when analyzing your employer’s
policy:
1. Are you listed by name on your employer’s
policy?
2. Are legal costs included in the limits of liability, or will
they be paid in addition to policy limits?
3. If a malpractice claim is filed against you, will this professional
liability policy pay legal fees and court costs in addition to your
policy limit, even if you are not liable for the charges brought
against you?
4. If you decide to change employers and are covered under a claims-made
policy, will your former employer be responsible for paying the
cost of the tail coverage?
5. Is policy available in all 50 states?
If you answered NO to any of these questions,
investigate purchasing your own individual policy through one of
the many malpractice and professional liability programs available.
Remember: Protect yourself and your future
and strive to function within the parameters of your state licensure
laws.
You can find more Health
Insurance Information here
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