Med Mal Insurance for Nurse Practitioners: What You Need to Know
The first NP program in the United States dates back to 1965 and the AANP was established in 1984 with the goal of bringing healthcare to underserved populations. But nurse practitioners have quickly moved beyond the original scope of that founding program. Now NPs are stalwarts on the front lines of healthcare in just about every delivery system in the country.
The intricacies of med mal for NPs have grown and changed along with the environment in which you work. Let’s do a very quick overview of the one-size-fits-all med mal for nurse practitioners that is available from any number of programs and partnerships:
Your professional liability policy is issued in your name (i.e., you are the first named insured). You have your own individual limits (e.g., 1M/3M in CA or $500k/1.5M in PA). These limits are designed to make a patient whole (also called indemnify) should an adverse outcome occur.
There will likely be multiple sublimits attached to your policy. These are smaller amounts payable for specific types of situations like an administrative action taken by a regulatory agency or a cyber incident.
The med mal for nurse practitioners’ policy will be either claims-made or occurrence. Claims-made policies can be confusing and require careful consideration. While they often come with lower premiums, the cost difference doesn’t tell the full story. Consult us to determine your best option considering your circumstances.
Here is a nurse practitioner insurance guide that outlines a few unique situations where the above type of policy may be inadequate for your needs:
1. If you are working for or with an entity that is either underinsured (i.e., not carrying the same limits as you – this makes you the deep pocket) or doesn’t carry insurance at all. This may not be purposeful. We encounter situations where all involved truly believe their coverage is adequate and are shocked to learn that they have gaping holes in their protection.
· How to protect yourself: Ask for a copy of their policy when they ask for a copy of yours. Verify the dates and limits before committing. When in doubt, send it to us for review.
2. Working at locations your current carrier either doesn’t know about or doesn’t offer coverage for. Long-term care facilities, prisons, and the like may be specifically excluded in med mal for NPs as they are subject to frequent, high-dollar claims.
· How to protect yourself: always send new practice locations to your current carrier for approval. Once you submit the information, it is up to the carrier to either object or notify you that coverage is not included for that location.
3. Practicing outside the scope of coverage. One important idea to remember is that while it may be legal, it may not be insurable. Many healthcare practitioners work on the presumption that because they don’t see any risk or possibility of adverse outcomes from a certain procedure or practice component, the insurance industry wouldn’t object to it. A recent example is the compounding of GLP-1 drugs with sodium or acetate. Legal, but very much not readily insurable. Carriers removed coverage for this practice almost immediately and compounding of GLP-1 drugs with these additives remains a very difficult risk to cover.
· How to protect yourself: Always verify that any new procedure being considered is going to be insured. If your existing carrier won’t write it, get in touch was us to secure separate coverage for that.
4. Telehealth environments are still being developed in our post-Covid world. The necessity of including telehealth coverage during the pandemic is being quickly reeled back in by the carriers. All require patients to be in-state or the provider to be licensed in the states where the patients reside. Rules can be tricky and are still developing. Again, legal doesn’t always equate to insurable. Many insurance carriers are also seeking to limit telehealth to a small portion of the overall practice patient population. Higher than 10% telehealth patients can lead to automatic declinations by certain carriers.
· How to protect yourself: Be very clear and specific about your patient population and locations with your carrier to be certain you are covered. You may need to change to a carrier who is more comfortable with the medicine you are practicing.
How to best protect yourself overall: Use L&J as your broker. You won’t pay extra, and you’ll get an expert resource to help you navigate a complex world where the rules always favor the company. There’s a reason every one of the situations listed above exists. Your world is complicated, and med mal for nurse practitioners is just another thing that can go haywire. Let us take care of this small but critical part of your work. Let us set you free to do the things you love.
Connect with us to get more information and start the conversation. We’re eager to hear from you.