Insurance coverage for healthcare providers and institutions.
Hospital Administrator » Insurance » Policy Features
For hospitals, Medical Mutual provides integrated professional and general liability insurance that eliminates (closes) coverage gaps and provides ultimate flexibility in meeting even the most atypical needs.
Professional Liability Insurance: Range of deductibles and limits highlight Medical Mutual’s claims-made coverage.
Medical Mutual writes all of its professional medical liability insurance coverage on a claims-made basis, which means your hospital will have protection for claims which arise out of covered professional services you provide following your initial effective date (or retroactive date) of coverage. So, any claims filed against the institution today are covered by current policy limits, even though your limits may have been lower at the time of the incident in question. Each claims-made policy features per-claim and aggregate limits of your choice.
In securing Medical Mutual professional liability coverage, you can also select the deductible that makes the most sense for your institution — indemnity-only or indemnity and expenses, starting as low as $5,000 per claim to an upper end in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The typical Medical Mutual claims-made professional liability policy for hospitals includes coverage for:
- provision for failure to provide health care services
- furnishing of food, beverages, medications or appliances
- post-mortem care
- lawful activities of a formal accreditation, credentialing and quality assurance committee
- reasonable costs associated with defense of a claim up to $250 per day
Unique “slot” coverage saves on costly tails.
In a medical jobs market that is ever more fluid, with regular turnover in employed-physician and nursing positions, more and more hospitals are taking advantage of a Medical Mutual option that allows you to insure a “slot” rather than an individual. This eliminates the need to purchase a tail every time a slotted care provider moves on. The obligation to purchase a “tail” arises only when you elect to close the slot altogether.
Coverage B:
Under what circumstances might a physician or administrator be subject to a professional liability claim from a non-patient? Typically the answer lies in one’s professional duties serving as a member of, say, a peer review or quality committee. In such roles, a physician is often asked to render an opinion on the conduct or service of a physician relative to a specific incident or set of circumstances. In such cases, your opinion could very well impact that physician’s employment status or ability to practice. When that impact is negative, it is becoming more common for the physician to bring a suit against you for your role on the review committee and for allegedly damaging his or her reputation and livelihood.
Save with Prior Acts ("Nose") Coverage
You may be eligible for prior acts ("nose") coverage if you are transferring from a claims-made policy with another carrier — an option that can provide significant savings by eliminating the need to purchase costly tails from a previous carrier.
Nose coverage provides protection against claims which are unknown to you at the time coverage is issued and which arise from covered services rendered prior to the initial effective date of your policy with Medical Mutual. The retroactive date of your previous policy becomes the retroactive date of your policy with Medical Mutual Insurance Company of Maine. Therefore, this eliminates the necessity of purchasing "Tail" coverage from your previous carrier in order to switch to Medical Mutual. If your current coverage is "occurrence" coverage, you do not need prior acts coverage.
Certain restrictions may apply. Contact your agent or the Medical Mutual Underwriting Department for more information.
Reporting Endorsement ("Tail") Coverage:
It is important to note that when a claims-made policy cancels or is not renewed for whatever reason, beginning 30 days after the termination of the policy there is no longer any coverage in force for any unreported incidents or claims. To preserve coverage on a canceled claims-made policy for future claims arising out of professional services provided prior to the termination of the policy, a tail or extended reporting endorsement is offered at the time of the cancellation.
You have the right to purchase this endorsement for up to 30 days after the policy is canceled. If you do not exercise this right and have not obtained prior acts ("nose") coverage from your new insurer, you will not have protection for future claims arising out of care provided while your policy was in force.
General Liability Insurance: Integrated occurrence coverage helps close potential coverage gaps.
In a hospital setting, gray areas can exist between professional liability and general liability. Medical Mutual’s integrated general liability coverage helps close any potential gaps created by those gray areas, thereby avoiding the inevitable finger-pointing that could otherwise result from having separate carriers for the two areas of risk.
Medical Mutual writes the general liability portion of your coverage on an occurrence basis. As such, Medical Mutual is responsible for covering those general liability claims made against your institution for incidents that occur while the policy is in force, regardless of when the claim is filed.
Medical Mutual’s general liability insurance for hospitals covers:
- bodily injury
- property damage
- personal injury
- medical payments for premises claims up to $5,000
- fire legal liability
- patient's personal property $1,000 limit/$100 deductible
All-inclusive policy features
Discounts
Premium discounts for Medical Mutual hospital insurance are available. Such discounts are experience-based and contain program and protocol requirements for qualification. Contact your agent or the Medical Mutual Underwriting Department for further information.
Non-Assessable Policy
You cannot be assessed back-charges if prior years’ rates are proven to have been inadequate.