Skip to main content

A Brief Guide to Medical Malpractice Insurance Policy



A medical malpractice insurance policy is designed to protect doctors from misusing their knowledge or not applying the right practice at the right time. Medicine is a very complex field in which you cannot afford to make mistakes for the simple reason that your decision may injure someone temporarily, permanently or in the worst case scenario, even take someone's life. A medical malpractice insurance policy protects one as much as possible against such disasters.

How Does a Medical Malpractice Insurance Policy Work?

The provider of the medical malpractice insurance policy has two primary obligations - defense and indemnity. The obligations to defend requires the provider to hire a lawyer to defend the charges bought against the alleged doctor and; the obligation to indemnify requires the provider to pay an amount up to the policy limits settlement or judgment on any covered claim against the doctor.

The policy provider will generally hire a lawyer that has been agreed upon mutually with the doctor to work on the case, and pay all fees necessary for the hired lawyer; while the accused doctor is allowed to hire another lawyer on their own the policy provider is not required to pay that additional fees. Keep in mind that the company's lawyer will have its best interests at heart, not necessarily yours.

Finally, a medical malpractice insurance policy has the 'consent to settle' clause' that requires the insurance carrier to obtain the doctor's approval in order to settle the case. When pleading to consent to settle which does happen many times, the doctor places the power of decision regarding the settlement with the insurance company.

The Duties of the Insured Doctor

The doctor who bought the policy does have some obligations to fulfill beyond merely paying the premium every month; for instance, in case of a filed claim, the insurance policy requires the doctor to cooperate fully in order to have a smooth investigation of the filed case, and the doctor is required to provide any data requested by the investigators with regard to the victim and case.

Many medical malpractice suits are settled out of the court, usually coming to a mutual understanding beneficial to both parties. However, such lawsuits require a lot of time and energy from both parties in order to provide all data required and attend all required hearings. They are stressful and often take their toll on both the parties. A medical malpractice insurance policy is meant to protect both the doctor and the patient at the same time; acting as an arbitrary party in order to bring light on the actual happenings.

Popular posts from this blog

Medical Billing Careers

Medical billing careers are among the top contenders of the recent job explosion in the healthcare industry. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that it is one of the top twenty occupations in healthcare. Medical billing careers are pivotal to the success of the medical practice. It is often referred to as the doctor's key to getting paid for the services he rendered. Medical billing careers encompass a wide scope and a broad range of responsibilities as it includes front office tasks, among others, in its list of things to do. Nature of Work Success in medical billing careers is not as easy as it is often made out to be by those ads you see in the classified section of the local newspaper or the Internet. Not everyone who enters into one end up rich. Competition is fierce and in the end, the competent ones are the only ones who survive. To achieve some measure of success in medical billing careers, you will need to know all the basic concepts related to the jo...
Read more

Billing Insurance Medical Software

The process of selecting billing insurance medical software for a medical office or clinic can be overwhelming and time-consuming. There are just too many billing insurance medical software packages available out there; it's hard to make up your mind. In addition, compliance to strict guidelines regarding the privacy and security of patient records and information is required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). That makes it even harder to find a billing insurance medical software program that hits every aspect of the target. Finding the right type of billing insurance medical software can spell the difference between a good service and a bad one. In fact, the type of billing insurance medical software used in an office or clinic can greatly influence its bottom line. Its effect even embraces such things as business efficiency and employee turnover. There are also hidden costs to billing insurance medical software and they can often...
Read more

Medical Insurance Billing Software

Medical insurance billing software has been helping medical practices manage their offices for decades now. In fact, the earliest medical insurance billing software, though somewhat primitive then, started appearing thirty years ago, give or take a few years. One can even say that medical insurance billing software is about as old as medical billing itself. The medical insurance billing software packages today are called medical practice management systems or MPM systems and they bear only the most basic resemblance to their older counterparts. These packages are often packed with features to make medical billing easier and simpler for the medical biller and coder. The uses of medical insurance billing software may vary depending according to the type of features the package contains. Some solutions may allow staffers to track patient demographics, visits, and diagnoses. Others may collect, transmit, and track billing information and insurance payments. Still others apply mor...
Read more