The issue about medical insurance is one that concerns both doctors and medical malpractice plaintiffs. Considering that this is one of the most acted upon merits for a personal injury claim, its well worth discussing the matters surrounding the insurance that covers the liability of the doctors. There are two types of insurances – regular and tail insurance and you have to grasp at the basics for the first one in order to understand the concept of the latter.
Doctors are insured
The first thing that you need to understand is that doctors are insured for the damages that their actions may cause by standard claims-made insurance policy. This is a specific insurance which is particularly designated to cover the liability of doctors on practice while they conduct their duties. The solution is rather fair. The medical profession is of such nature that it’s possible for the doctor to harm another person without any malicious aforethought and he should be protected against potential claims. Furthermore, the injured party is fully entitled to make his claim because he has to be protected against medical malpractice.
The situation is rather straightforward when the claim is filed while the standard claim-made insurance is still in effect. The injured party is going to direct the claim towards the insurance company which is obligated to compensate him as per the regular rules set forth in the Insurance Act of Ontario. All of the settlement-negotiating techniques are going to take full force and there are some specifics deriving from the fact that it’s a medical malpractice case which is a bit out-of-the-box. If you have a proper claim and case of medical malpractice, it becomes easy when the personal injury lawyer is in your corner.
Tail insurance
However, it becomes rather difficult and daunting for the doctor if the standard claims-made insurance policy has expired at the time of the claim. This is when the doctor would be personally liable for the damages unless he has an additional coverage. This additional coverage is called tail insurance and it’s going to cover the claims which are made after the expiration of the initial standard claim-made insurance. However, you have to know that there are certain specifics. Tail insurance policies are going to cover these claims in case the event has happened during the functioning of the standard insurance. This means that the occasion from which the injuries that are being acted upon has to have occurred during this initial period. If it has occurred after the period but during the coverage of the tail insurance the latter won’t be in effect.
Furthermore, the tail insurance requires additional premiums which are rather expensive. In any case, when you stack both the merits and disadvantages it’s clear that tail coverage is going to give you a peace of mind but at a high cost. However, it is best to have the support from an experienced lawyer.
