Insurance for Medical Professionals: Are You Covered?

Simplifying insurance is like simplifying medicine; it’s no easy task. As a medical professional, you can ask your patient a handful of questions that may flag a potentially serious problem, and then order diagnostic testing as needed. Likewise, you or your insurance agent should ask the proper questions to identify potentially serious problems with your insurance coverage. And problems with your insurance are as serious as a heart attack: if you are sued when unintentionally underinsured, you could lose everything you’ve worked hard to build.

Like medicine, insurance has specialties, but you should take a holistic view and examine all the elements of your coverage: professional coverage, personal coverage, your carrier and agent, and how it’s all integrated. To begin, following are a few simple questions:

Professional Coverage

Are all of your professional activities covered? Is anything you do–even occasionally – excluded?
Are all your people covered? Past and present employees, medical directors, volunteers, even vendors?
Are all relevant time periods covered? Acts that occurred prior to your coverage period?
Are all your entities covered? Does your firm have subsidiaries, or have you been involved in a merger?
Are you using the savings from a high deductible to offset the cost of higher coverage limits?

Personal Coverage

Are the limits on your auto, homeowners and umbrella integrated? Are the limits appropriate considering your net worth and earnings potential?
Is your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage limit as high as your liability limit?
Are the limits on your professional and personal policies integrated?
Do you have any non-standard exposures which may not be covered by a standard homeowner’s policy (i.e. domestic staff, international travel, not-for-profit board memberships, etc.)?

Insurance Carriers

Do they have a track record of experience offering your particular coverage? A Best’s Rating of at least A (insurance company measure of financial solvency)?
Do they have a reputation for high quality claims processing? Do they supply ancillary services such as risk mitigation resources (for smaller clients, training materials and video library, for larger clients risk control audits to help manage exposures)?

Agent

Does your agent offer professional and personal policies from multiple quality carriers, including specialty carriers (on the professional side, for various practice specialties and on the personal side, for high-end homes)?
Does your agent have experience with commercial, professional liability and personal lines?
If you have multiple agents, do they talk with each other to make sure your coverage is coordinated?

And finally, you want a fair price for your insurance. There are a limited number of carriers and those carriers price the same risk the same way regardless through which agent they work. So, when considering competitive rates, confirm the coverage is comprehensive. If you pay less for a policy that excludes one of your activities, the short-term gain may not be worth the long-term risk.

Carrie Abernethy is President of Desert Insurance Solutions, Inc. in La Quinta and can be reached at 760-564-6800 [email protected].