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Tuesday 10 January 2012

Get the Best Possible Medical Malpractice Insurance by Paying Attention to the Terms of the Policy

By Peter Treps


The medical malpractice suit is one of the primary problems faced by the present day medical practitioner. Doctors, Nurses other health professionals including Hospitals are facing this type of suits. A medical malpractice is said to have been committed by a healthcare professional if he is negligent in treating a patient. When an action is done or not done as per the accepted standards a medical malpractice occurs. The person who is claiming that he has been subjected to negligent treatment and he has been put to suffer due to this has to prove the same.



When a health professional who is duty bound to treat the patient fails to do so as per the accepted standards of his profession this forms the basis for the medical malpractice. If injury or damage has been caused to the patient due to this, then the doctor or the hospital is liable to compensate him. In the present days we find that most of the suits filed alleging medical malpractices are settled with payment of compensation. So, it becomes necessary for the practicing healthcare professionals to get suitably covered under medical malpractice insurance. While some states have made this an option, most of the others have made it compulsory for the healthcare professionals to have this coverage before starting practice.

We can see a many types of medical malpractice insurance coverage. The Claims made policies, Occurrence policy and Claims-paid insurance policy are the three major categories based on the types of coverage and the benefits under these policies. Each one of them has different types of coverage and hence you must pay attention in selecting the right one to get the best coverage. For getting coverage for the alleged acts during the period of policy you have to take Claims made coverage policy. In this policy the premium is collected based on the past acts and the current liability without reference to the liabilities that may arise in future.

When you take an Occurrence coverage policy you can get coverage for the acts that happened during the period of policy irrespective of the date of filing of the claim. With this type of policy there is no coverage for past acts or those occurring after its termination. In a Claims paid coverage the premium is collected based on the claims raised during a particular period and this is applicable for the healthcare institutions. The exclusion terms in these policies are very important and they must be carefully considered before taking the policy.

The obligations arising out of a contract, Clinical trials that are conducted during research projects, genetic damage or manipulation, IVF treatments or the claims arising out of illegal, fraudulent ,dishonest, malicious acts and omissions etc are some of the most common exclusions found in a Medical malpractice Insurance policy. So, pay more attention to these while taking these policies.




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