The Significance of Physician Assistant Malpractice Insurance
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012There are many malpractice suits filed against doctors and physician assistants every year. It is also not necessary that the physician assistant makes a mistake to become liable. Just about anything can occur in the medical field. Unfortunately, it only takes one frivolous lawsuit to not only ruin his medical career, but also wipe out a physician assistant’s bank account. This is the case if he does not have medical professional liability insurance.
Out of all of the professions in the United States, the physician assistant profession is one that is developing the most rapidly. In addition, the responsibilities of the average physician assistant are increasing because numerous states are trying to find ways to reduce the healthcare expenses. When these facts are factored in, anyone can see that physician assistant malpractice suits will constantly keep increasing in the future. The American Academy of Physician Assistants predicts that the number of professional physician assistants in the United States will increase to 141,000 by the year 2020. Surely, all of these physician assistants could be named in a malpractice lawsuit.
Although a physician assistant might be on the company’s insurance policy, he or she can still be held liable for medical malpractice.
Even though a physician assistant is a dependent healthcare practitioner, he is always at risk of individual liability. In the eyes of the law, each medial worker can be held liable for what he does.
There are numerous physician assistants who assume that they are fully insured if they are listed on the insurance policy of their employer. This is completely false. When they are put on an employer’s insurance policy, they are not insured for the full one hundred percent coverage. They can still be held individually liable for their own negligence. They might be responsible for paying all of or a portion of what the plaintiff is asking.
All hospitals understand will get medical insurance that will cover its healthcare staff. But, this is not enough insurance. Physician assistants must buy their own malpractice insurance individually or under a group plan from a commercial insurance company. They must also carefully choose their liability limits.
There are 2 sorts of insurance and they are based upon either the occurrence or the claims made. The type of insurance where the incidents happen while the insurance is still in force is called occurrence insurance. With occurrence insurance, a claim that is reported late will still be covered if the incident in question took place before the insurance policy expires. However, this type of insurance is not so common anymore because of the many unknown factors that are connected to malpractice insurance lawsuits. The claims made kind of insurance policy is the more common type of insurance in this day and time.
In the “claims-made” type of insurance, all malpractice incidents that happen in the policy period must be reported to the insurance company when the policy is active. If the policy is terminated and the incident goes unreported, the company will not provide any insurance cover. If a physician assistant wants to make sure that claims can be reported after the insurance policy expirs, then they have to get an additional insurance policy. A physician assistant can get the type of insurance policy called prior acts insurance that will provide coverage for malpractice incidents that have happened, but they still have not brought to the insurance company’s attention yet.
When it comes to getting the most suitable malpractice policy, a physician assistant must take certain factors into consideration such as the overall job responsibilities, where he practices and the amount of risk that he is faced with on a daily basis. A physician assistant’s job responsibilities can be put into three different groups that are designated as Class A, B or C.
Class A physician assistants have to help find solutions for patient problems.
Class B physician assistants help with basic surgery, obstetrics, emergency situations up to a maximum of ten hours a week and anethesiology.
As a Class C physician assistants, the responsibilities include assisting with neuro, cardiovascular, OB/GYN, thoracic and plastic surgery. Also, they are responsible for helping out with over ten hours weekly in trauma situations, cardiac catheterization and obstetric delivery room procedures.
Physician assistants should purchase the right about of insurance coverage if they help with risky procedures such as cardiovascular surgery. If they do not participate in risky procedures, then these physician assistants do not have such high limits. But, if there seems to be a rising trend of lawsuits in the state, then the physician assistant has to raise the insurance limit.
Medical malpractice insurance protects a physician assistant’s career and his finances. Even if he is on his employer’s insurance policy, a physician assistant should also get his own coverage just to make sure that no risk is involved.