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Physicians & Surgeons
Doctors, surgeons, dentists, oral surgeons and chiropractors, whether practicing solo, as a member of a group or facility or as an employee can obtain malpracice insurance for themselves, even if the group or facility's policy offers them coverage. In fact it is highly recommended that doctors who work in a group environment do get their own malpractice policy in addition to the one offered by the group. There are several reasons for this, any of which could have a major impact on the individual's practice. Just to name a few:
- A group policy protecting the establishment, if on a claims made form (as most malpractice policies are on Claims Made form) may or may not offer the same coverage to you once you leave the group, and if a claim is filed against you after you have left the group, you may not have the same coverage as you did while you were practicing there.
- If the firm dissolves after you have left them and/or their policy is later cancelled or non-renewed (or a "tail" is not purchased after such non-renewal) and later a claim is filed against you for your errors & ommissions while you were active in that group, you may have no protection, unless your current group policy (if any) honors claims brought against you individually in a predecessor firm and the retroactive date of such current policy is on or before the date of the incident, or if now practicing solo, your current individual policy (if any) honors claims brought against you as a member of a predecessor firm and the retroactive date of such current policy is on or before the date on which the incident in question occured.
- If a claim is filed against the establishment for an incident unrelated to your practice and a judgement is entered, which exhausts or reduces the limits of that policy, that policy will end up with little or no coverage left to pay any claims made against you in the same policy year.
- Although the group policy does afford you coverage, chances are your policy will be secondary to the group policy, therefore you still have a cushion before your policy is exposed.
The above are only some of the issues which need to be considered when purchasing a practice policy. Our brokers will be happy to answer all your questions in detail.
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