Medical Malpractice Insurance & Physician Professional Liability

Insurance Center of North Jersey is proud to offer a wide range of professional insurance products to our customers in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Physician professional liability coverage is one of the most important types of coverage professionals in the medical industry can invest in.

With a decision this vital, we believe our 80-year history of serving North Jersey speaks volumes and invite you to learn more about the wide range of products we have available to help you meet your medical professional liability insurance needs.

What is Professional Liability Insurance for Physicians?

The long and short of it is that this type of insurance coverage helps protect physicians and many of their employees from medical malpractice claims. While it’s completely understandable that you have faith in your abilities, attention to detail, and quality of care, the fact remains that you don’t need to have done anything wrong in order face a long and costly courtroom battle to defend your business, your reputation, and your financial interests.

A physician professional liability policy is a medical malpractice policy that helps to cover the costs of your defense and may cover part or all of any monetary damages that are awarded in the event that the case is lost.

While some staff members are covered under the physician’s professional liability policy, assuming they work for you, some medical professionals will need additional policies in order to be covered. The following professionals will need their own policies.

Nurse Practitioners
Physician Assistants
Midwives
Certified Nurse Anesthetists

Always check with your independent insurance agent to see if you have other professionals in your practice that need individual policies and to learn more about creating custom policies to meet the needs of your practice.

Are there Exclusions for Professional Liability Insurance Coverage?

All policies contain some exclusions. The items listed below are some of the common exclusions, though the list is not at all exhaustive.

Illegal Conduct
Sexual Impropriety
Misrepresentations on Insurance Application (altered hospital or lab records, for instance)
Others Insurers Specify

Of course, you should discuss policy specifics with your insurance agent as all policies vary somewhat in coverage and exclusions.

What are Policy Limits?

Most medical professional liability insurance policies have two limits. One limit is the maximum payout for a single claim and the other limit is the maximum payout within a year. Different medical industries will need higher limits according to the risks of lawsuits within those industries.

Some physicians may feel more comfortable purchasing additional or umbrella liability coverage to provide coverage beyond the limits of their standards of professional liability insurance. It’s important to work with a local independent insurance agent who understands the local need for malpractice coverage so they can advise you on the amount of coverage you need for your area, the type of practice you own, and more.

Medical Malpractice Insurance

At The Insurance Center of North Jersey, we work with all kinds of medical providers to help them find robust and affordable medical malpractice insurance.

Besides serving doctors, we also work with dentists, nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals. Some of our clients purchase individual coverage and some need to cover an entire practice. Either way, we work hard to find the right solution from a top-rated local company.

Types of Medical Malpractice Insurance Policies

This kind of coverage is a bit more complex than it seems at first glance. Just as there are many different kinds of healthcare workers, there are different kinds of malpractice policies. It’s important to understand these three basic choices:

Occurrence: These policies cover events that occurred when the coverage was in force even if the policy has expired before the claim was made. Occurrence policies usually cost the most.
Claims-made: These are more common today, probably because they are cheaper than occurrence policies. However, they will only cover claims that are made if you are covered by the same insurer at the date of the incident and the date of the actual claim.
Tail insurance: This is a kind of protection that covers claims that won’t be handled by a claims-made insurer because the covered person has switched insurance companies between the incident and the claim. It gets purchased by health providers who are switching from a claims-made plan to another plan.
Telemed: Because companies operating in this space often bridge both the healthcare and technology sectors, they are open to a wide range of emerging and traditional risks.

The statute of limitations for particular malpractice complaints could vary by the state and type of offense. Still, it’s quite common that the actual complaint will get made months or even years after the incident that generated it.

That’s why it’s very important to understand how these different types of coverage work. Not understanding how claims-made insurance works, for example, could leave hardworking healthcare professionals vulnerable to paying for lawsuits and the cost of defense out of their own pocket. It could even leave them at risk for bankruptcy.

Work With Us to Buy Medical Malpractice Insurance

The brokers here at The Insurance Center of North Jersey understand how different kinds of professional liability policies work. They will take the time to also understand your unique needs and what kind of policy you have currently or had in the past.

This allows our experienced agents to suggest the right balance of benefits and premiums for each client. As an independent insurance agency, we can also work with you to find the most competitive rates from high-quality local insurance companies.

Why Trust Insurance Center of North Jersey

Your physician professional liability insurance purchase is one of the most important you’ll make as a physician. You should choose an agency that’s an independent agency and one that has a long-standing history in the area.

Why is it so important to go with an independent agency?

Agents that are affiliated with one specific insurance provider can only offer a limited range of insurance plans and coverage options. Because of that, their interests are in selling you the policy they have, rather than working to sell you the policy that meets your needs best. We have an 80 year history of serving North Jersey – including NY, NJ, and PA and believe we have the right combination of products, coverage, and price to meet your medical malpractice insurance needs.