Experien General Insurance Services arranges professional indemnity insurance for medical “practices” as well as such insurance for “individual” medical practitioners. We work with a range of insurers as a broker.
When a “practice” obtains professional indemnity insurance, it is often referred to as “entity medical malpractice insurance”. So, why would a “practice” consider such cover and what does it offer ?
The legal entity, that owns a medical practice, can be named as a defendant in civil legal proceedings brought against it. This compares with a civil legal proceeding brought against an individual medical practitioner. A “Practice” Medical Indemnity Insurance Policy can offer financial protection for the “Practice” (business entity) if this happens. Such a policy can fund the costs of defending the practice and paying any claims for compensation.
Sometimes a legal proceeding will be brought only against the “Practice”, instead of an individual medical practitioner(s) who provided the care to the patient, and sometimes proceedings can be brought against both.
Consider, as an example, where a patient has been seen by a number of doctors at a Practice, something goes wrong, and it is unclear which (if any) of them has been negligent. The legal proceeding may then be made against the Practice and hence the policy will be needed to fund the response.
One difference between “practice” and “individual” medical indemnity insurance is that the latter is mandatory to have when working in private practice, but the former is optional.
Each policy has different terms and conditions, as well as some exclusions, and these are noted in the Product Disclosure Statement issued by each insurer, which must be read before considering taking out insurance. Experien General Insurance Services can help explain the details in these documents to you.
This is general information and does not take into account the specific needs, goals and personal circumstances of any particular practice.
General insurance services are provided by Experien General Insurance Services Pty Ltd ABN 77 151 269 279 AFS Licence No. 430190 (EGIS) trading as Experien Insurance Services. EGIS arranges insurance and is not an insurer
