The Importance of Malpractice Insurance For Physician Assistants
Sunday, February 5th, 2012There are large amounts of malpractice lawsuits filed against doctors and physician assistant on a yearly basis. It is also not necessary that the physician assistant makes a mistake to become liable. Anything can go wrong in the healthcare industry. Unfortunately, it only takes one frivolous lawsuit to not only ruin his medical career, but also wipe out a physician assistant’s bank account. This is the case if he does not have medical professional liability insurance.
Out of all of the professions in the United States, the physician assistant profession is one that is developing the most rapidly. In addition, the responsibilities of the average physician assistant are increasing because numerous states are trying to find ways to reduce the healthcare expenses. When these facts are factored in, anyone can see that physician assistant malpractice suits will constantly keep increasing in the future. The AAPA (American Academy of Physician Assistants) estimates that there will be 141,000 clinically practicing physician assistants in USA by 2020. It is obvious that all of these working physician assistants can be sued for malpractice.
Although a physician assistant might be on the company’s insurance policy, he or she can still be held liable for medical malpractice.
Although physician assistants are not considered to be independent healthcare providers, they can still be held personally liable. In the eyes of the law, each medial worker can be held liable for what he does.
Many PAs figure that they are safe if they are covered under their employer’s insurance program. But, that’s a wrong assumption. PAs are not fully covered under such employer insurance programs. They can still be held individually liable for their own negligence. They may have to pay the full or part of a plaintiff’s settlement.
All hospitals understand will get medical insurance that will cover its healthcare staff. But, it does not cover them at 100 percent. Physician assistants have to get personal malpractice insurance on their own or via a group. They also have to be careful when picking out the liability limits for themselves.
There are two types of malpractice insurance – “occurrence” and “claims-made.” If the malpractice episode occurs before the insurance policy expires, then it is called occurrence insurance. Even if the incident is reported much later, it will be admitted so long as the incident happened when the policy was in force. However, this type of insurance is not so common anymore because of the many unknown factors that are connected to malpractice insurance lawsuits. The second type of insurance known as claims made has become more popular these days.
When it comes to claims made insurance policies, the malpractice episode in question must take place during the existing policy period and be reported during this policy period too. If the policy is terminated and the incident goes unreported, the company will not provide any insurance cover. If a physician assistant wants to make sure that claims can be reported after the insurance policy expirs, then they have to get an additional insurance policy. A physician assistant can get the type of insurance policy called prior acts insurance that will provide coverage for malpractice incidents that have happened, but they still have not brought to the insurance company’s attention yet.
When it comes to getting the most suitable malpractice policy, a physician assistant must take certain factors into consideration such as the overall job responsibilities, where he practices and the amount of risk that he is faced with on a daily basis. A physician assistant’s job responsibilities can be put into three different groups that are designated as Class A, B or C.
Class A physician assistants have to help find solutions for patient problems.
Class B physician assistants help with basic surgery, obstetrics, emergency situations up to a maximum of ten hours a week and anethesiology.
Class C physician assistants are those who assist in orthopedic/OB/GYN/cardiovascular/neuro/thoracic/plastic surgeries. In addition, they assist with obstetric procedures in the delivery room, cardiac catheterization as well as helping out more than 10 hours a week in the emergency room.
If they participate in risky surgeries that are cardiovascular in nature, then they should consider getting more insurance that has more coverage. If they do not participate in risky procedures, then these physician assistants do not have such high limits. However, there is a noticeable increase in the state’s medical malpractice lawsuits, then the physician assistant should opt for a much higher insurance limit.
Purchasing medical malpractice insurance will help save both the bank account and medical career or a practicing physician assistant. To eliminate even the slightest risk, every PA must buy adequate malpractice insurance even though he is covered under his employer’s policy.
