All registered medical practitioners who provide health care or medical opinion in respect of the physical or mental health of any person, must ensure all aspects of their medical practice are covered by professional indemnity insurance (PII), or some alternative form of indemnity cover that complies with the Medical Board Of Australia’s Board’s registration standard for professional indemnity insurance.
Initial registration and annual renewal of registration will require a declaration that the medical practitioner will be covered for all aspects of practice for the whole period of the registration.
For details click the link to see the Board’s Professional Indemnity Insurance Registration Standard
There are 5 providers of medical indemnity insurance to Doctors in Australia. They are :
- Tego
- MIGA
- MDA
- MIPS. and
- AVANT
You have the choice of using a broker, such as Experien General Insurance Services to arrange your insurance with some of these providers. If you would like us to assist you, and take away the hassles of dealing directly with an insurer, then please click on this link.
The Medical Board Of Australia’s (The Board) professional indemnity standard (last updated Jan 2016) applies to all registered medical practitioners except those with non-practising registration. It does not apply to registered students.
When you practise as a medical practitioner, you must ensure that you are insured or indemnified for every context in which you practice. This applies to all practice contexts, including private and public practice, self employed practitioners, those employed or contracted by others or working in an unpaid or volunteer capacity.
To meet the registration standard, you must fulfil the requirements set out in one of the following categories.
If you are specifically precluded from cover for any aspect of practice under your insurance or indemnity arrangements, you must not practice in that area.
Private practice
Insurance while practising in Australia, with an insurer registered with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and who meets the minimum product standards that apply to all medical indemnity insurers as defined in the Medical Indemnity (Prudential Supervision and Product Standards) Act 2003 (Cth). The insurance cover must include appropriate retroactive cover for otherwise uncovered matters arising from prior practice undertaken in Australia.
Employment or contractual arrangements in the public sector
Medical practitioners who are employed in the public sector or who work in the public sector under a contractual arrangement may have cover under a master policy, an employer’s indemnity arrangements, or be covered by legislation.
Other indemnified employer
Medical practitioners who are employees or have a contractual arrangement with a non-government employer may be covered by third party insurance arranged by the employer.
Note: run-off cover is required for past practice in Australia.
The National Law provides that a registered health practitioner must not practise their profession unless appropriate professional indemnity insurance arrangements are in force in relation to the practitioner’s practice of the profession (section 129 of the National Law).
When you apply for registration
When you apply for registration, you must declare that you will not practice the profession unless you have professional indemnity insurance arrangements in place that meet the standard. This is a requirement under the National Law.
At renewal of registration
You will be required to declare annually at renewal of registration:
– whether during the preceding period of registration, you practiced the profession in accordance with the requirements of this standard, and
– that you will not practice the profession unless you have PII arrangements in place that are consistent with this standard.
During the registration period
You must notify the Board within seven days if you no longer have appropriate professional indemnity insurance arrangements in place in relation to your practice that meets the requirements of this standard (section 130 of the National Law).
Your compliance with the standard may be audited from time to time.
When you cease practice
When you decide to cease practice in Australia, you must take out appropriate run-off cover for matters that would otherwise be uncovered arising from previous practice as a registered medical practitioner.
Evidence
The Board may, at any time, require you to provide evidence that you have appropriate PII arrangements in place.
If you hold private insurance in your own name, you must retain documentary evidence of your insurance for five years for audit purposes.
If you are covered by a third party insurance arrangement, you are not required to obtain documentary evidence of the insurance policy unless the Board requests it. If requested by the Board, you must provide a certified copy of the certificate of currency or a letter from the third party declaring that you are covered.
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