It is vital for any business to carry professional liability insurance and that includes any dentist or doctors. Insurance companies that already carry your automobile, homeowner or health insurance might have plans that will fit your medical practice too. Physicians malpractice insurance can be combined with other plans, such as your property insurance, in order to receive partial discounts on premiums. This website will explain why you need this insurance coverage and where you can find it.
It used to be that a doctor would make house calls, accept alternative forms of payment and people were just grateful for their assistance but those days are over. Doctors are being sued for everything and sometimes find the cost of malpractice insurance premiums to be so high they literally look for work in different fields of medicine or even leave the health industry altogether. Some promising students have determined to forgo their dream of becoming a doctor. Insurance premiums are so high they can't see how they can afford to go to school, pay off their school debts, pay for premiums and still make a living.
In the mid-1970's professional liability insurers suddenly began raising rates dramatically for dentists and physicians and even abandoning the market altogether. This crisis caused doctors across the nation to worry how they were to insure themselves. These rises in premiums were caused by people becoming more litigious than in the past and the media making the vulnerability of physicians to malpractice suits more widely known. Some doctors also accuse lawyers of being extremely eager to bring malpractice suits against doctors due to the high fees they can collect. Doctors malpractice insurance is a must have for every physician, surgeon or other health care provider.The litigious society in which we live has made the increase in lawsuits filed beyond reason. Each lawsuit potentially increases the cost of health care and threatens access to health care for all Americans. Those in the legal profession, who also make large incomes from these lawsuits, contend that this has actually led to the best health care in the world, due to the ability of patients to receive judicial remedy through the courts, when victimized. The doctors that have to pay the steepest of medical malpractice premiums are the ones who deliver babies and perform surgeries. These doctors can face premiums of over $100,000 a year. The thought of limiting malpractice victims in their judgments or finding ways to help doctors afford malpractice insurance has been a long-term juggling act. A new report shows that the rate of premium increases for doctors have begun to level off, increasing only 2% in 2003 compared to tripling in 1996. When premiums began to increase these costs had to, in part, be passed on to the patients.
Many states have come up with state funded malpractice insurance in order for doctors to be able to continue to do business. When the insurance crisis began in the '70s doctors banded together to form physician or doctor owned malpractice insurance companies across the nation. These companies, The Doctors Company for example, are responsible for at least half of the insurance plans written. This site, Unimed, interestingly enough, was created by a group of lawyers who saw the same need for doctors to have affordable insurance coverage. There are many laws and changes being made to limit non-economic damages and to discourage frivolous lawsuits. State authorities have also been commissioned to do a better job of disciplining incompetent doctors. These doctors are one of the keys to a growing malpractice crisis.