Hospital administrators should place their California HPL insurance needs in the care of an experienced brokerage.
Some hospitals wish to maintain control of their medical professional liability and medical malpractice insurance in hopes of keeping costs down. However,
as hospitals begin to employ more and more specialists from different fields instead of mostly general practitioners, coverage requirements are becoming more complex. Administrators should be spending time improving patient care and keeping their employees happy, as opposed to keeping up with actuarial tasks and determining risks, claims, and deductibles.
Having A HPL Insurance Contact Is Vital
Would you rather try to perform your own surgery, or ask a healthcare specialist trained in a particular area to do it? It's a sound analogy, even when shopping for HPL insurance. Claims are getting more and more complex, taking extra time to manage, and creating more questions for the hospital employer than they have time to find answers for. Having an experienced professional liability coverage company, ready to protect against any type of litigation or claim, allows an institution to carry on with its mission, maximizing protection and patient care simultaneously.
Specialized case management means having the direct number of a human policy specialist who is the go-to person for your institute. Your claims are a priority, as opposed to being additional work for busy administrators. In addition, your case manager will regularly produce reports and analysis, showing administration exactly where claims are originating. This allows a proactive approach to minimizing future liability in that area or specialty. Having a specialized professional on your side in invaluable.
Litigious Society Makes HPL Insurance Essential
Hospital administrators have to think about every type of potential claim or lawsuit, from medical malpractice insurance claims to theft of a patient's property. HPL insurance generally covers people who are employees or volunteers of the hospital, to address claims arising from services provided to the public. Damages for settled cases are only increasing, which can be potentially damaging to a facility's bottom line. In addition, this type of coverage can protect against damages resulting from inter-employee issues.
Today's economic distress is leading the public to search for reasons to bring a lawsuit against healthcare providers. Contingency-based fee schedules allow patients to see if a lawsuit will "stick" with no personal financial risk to the patient. However, each of these cases must be taken seriously and defended against, which takes time, money, and energy away from what an administrator should be focused on: running a hospital with the main focus on patient care, not legal defense.
What's The Next Step?
Finding a specialized brokerage that has a proven track record with all of the types of coverage your facility needs, including cyber liability insurance, would be the most ideal situation. Your HPL policy is typically underwritten alongside a commercial general liability policy to ensure that all situations have a clearly defined policy for coverage. Find a provider that can assist either large hospital systems or individual hospitals, as they will have the expertise required for such a complex type of policy.
