The bad news is that it is often difficult for a doctor to choose the right medical malpractice insurance company for his practice in Florida. Some offer low rates, some have dividend programs, some have extra coverages that make their programs more attractive.

So how does a Florida doctor go about choosing the best medical malpractice insurance carrier in Florida?

In many cases, the choice of malpractice carriers might be made for him. If he joins an existing practice, that practice probably already has gone through the process of choosing an insurance provider and is happy with its malpractice insurance carrier. If he is employed by a hospital, he does not have to consider the implications of malpractice insurance.

But…for an independent practitioner looking for medical malpractice insurance, or for a group wishing to explore the Florida malpractice marketplace, the following should be considered:

• Quality of the company—As determined by its A.M. Best & Co. rating. Should be in the “A” range with a substantial size. Small companies may not be able to absorb a large loss.
• Length of time in the State of Florida—Important to understand the unique Florida marketplace. Talk with your peers about their experience in the Florida insurance arena.
• Premiums offered for a specialty—Probably the biggest consideration for most doctors. But beware if the medical malpractice premium is too good to be true. Some companies have the reputation of offering low premiums the first year and then increasing them later.
• Dividend or profit-sharing programs available—To reward doctors for loyalty to a malpractice insurance company. Often redeemable at retirement. An excellent forced savings plan for doctors in Florida.
• Risk management courses—To give premium credits and lessen the chances of having a claim.
• “Bells and whistles” on the malpractice policy—Such as Cyber Liability coverage, coverage for DPR events, Employment Practices Liability coverages, etc.

As we say in our office, no one regrets having the right insurance at the time of a loss. The choice of medical malpractice carriers is one of the most important considerations for a Florida doctor. The decision should be made wisely and with regard to the above important considerations.

And when should a Florida doctor re-evaluate his coverage? In a perfect world, he should review and compare his medical malpractice insurance policy with the rest of the market every year. Whenever a Florida practice changes in size, adds or drops practitioners, or has a significant change in scope, the medical malpractice insurance needs should be re-evaluated. An experienced Florida medical malpractice insurance agent can do this for the Florida doctor—at no cost or obligation.

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The Florida medical malpractice insurance marketplace fluctuates each year. Malpractice insurance companies come and go. A company that is competitive one year may not be competitive on either the price or the features of medical malpractice insurance the next year. With a change in management, a company can change its appetite for business, and may either become more aggressive in terms of pricing or more conservative. The average Florida physician or surgeon, busy enough in his or her own practice, cannot be expected to keep up with the ever-changing medical malpractice insurance landscape. This is where a medical malpractice insurance agent’s services are invaluable for the Florida physician or surgeon.

So, what can an agent offer? First, they should know the overall medical malpractice picture in the State of Florida. Is the medical malpractice market “hard”, with rising prices and shrinking benefits, or is it “soft”, with competitive pricing, plenty of competition, and expanding benefits? What does each of the major carriers charge for a specific specialty? How are the medical malpractice insurance companies rated? And even who are the players? Insurance company personnel can migrate from one company to the next, thereby changing the appetite and reputation of the carrier. An experienced medical malpractice insurance agent can steer a Florida physician or surgeon with confidence because they have done their homework.

Second, the medical malpractice insurance agent can conduct a thorough review of a physician’s insurance program. They can present quality options for the malpractice insurance, pointing out strengths and weaknesses of the various medical malpractice insurance companies. They can dig into the policies, making sure there are no potential gaps.

And, finally, an agent that is part of a full-service insurance agency can offer the Florida physician or surgeon a quote on other lines of business, such as office insurance, workers’ compensation insurance with dividend plans, cyber liability insurance, employment practices liability insurance, and home and automobile insurance. They thereby simplify the insurance program for the doctor. They can save the Florida physician or surgeon valuable premium dollars by eliminating duplication and avoiding gaps.

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Nature of Lawsuits:

Employees are suing Florida doctors and dentists for such breaches as:

• Wrongful termination
• Breach of employment contract
• Sexual harassment
• Wrongful hiring
• Wrongful disciplinary action
• Retaliation
• Failure to promote
• Violations of Family Medical Leave Act
• Whistleblower

Examples of Employment-Related Claims

Consider the following possibilities:

A claim could be made by a patient alleging that the patient was sexually harassed by the physician, surgeon or dentist while under anesthesia.

An EPLI claim could arise from a patient alleging that he was refused treatment because he was HIV positive.

A claim could be made against a physician, surgeon, oral surgeon or dentist that she was terminated because she was pregnant.

An EPLI claim could be brought by a vendor claiming that she was excluded because she was overweight.

A claim could be brought by an employee that his employment contract was breached when he or she was not given a raise.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

Gracey-Backer, Inc. strongly recommends that Florida healthcare providers purchase Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) to protect the practice from lawsuits by employees, independent contractors, patients or vendors for the above-mentioned accusations and others. The Employment Practices Liability Insurance policy will also assist the physician or dental practice in setting up policies and procedures designed to prevent an employment-related claim. If one occurs, the doctor or dentist has somewhere to turn—almost like having a skilled labor attorney on retainer.

EPLI premiums are extremely reasonable, even when third-party discrimination is included. A small physician, surgeon or dental office in Florida can expect to pay under $2,000 for $1,000,000 coverage.

Remember that just one single employment-related lawsuit can wreck a doctor or dentist’s practice. Every Florida physician and dental office should carry appropriate Employment Practices Liability Insurance coverage. Even if the practice has not experienced an employment-related claim in the past does not mean that one will not happen in the future. If an employee or third party makes an accusation, you must still pay to defend yourself, even if you are innocent!

For more information and for a no-obligation quote, kindly call the experts at Gracey-Backer, Inc. Please remember that quotes are free and we are here to assist you, the Florida physician, surgeon, oral surgeon and dentist in protecting your practice through quality insurance products.

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Workplace employee discrimination goes far beyond sex and race discrimination. Today, employees in dental offices are suing for discrimination based on age, disability (both visible and psychological), sexual orientation, religion, national origin, appearance, weight, and gender identity.

It is also becoming easier for employees of dental offices to communicate with other employees and with the outside world about unacceptable and potentially discriminating workplace behaviors, thanks to new digital platforms.

Dental employees who are “different” may face taunts from other employees, from employers, and even from patients. They may feel the painful effects of exclusion or ostracism. Today, instead of complaining or retreating, they are apt to sue the dentist employer.

A dental patient may claim that he or she was refused treatment because of his age, weight, sexual orientation, or nationality. An Employment Practices claim could be brought against a dentist, claiming that she was discriminated against because she was overweight.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance
Gracey-Backer, Inc. strongly recommends that Florida dentists purchase Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) to protect the practice from lawsuits by employees, independent contractors, patients or vendors for the above-mentioned accusations of discrimination, and other accusations that their legal rights have been violated. The EPLI policy will also assist the dentist in setting up policies and procedures designed to prevent an employment-related claim. If one occurs, the dentist has somewhere to turn—almost like having a skilled labor attorney on retainer. EPLI policies will reimburse the Florida dental office against the costs of defending a lawsuit in court and for judgments and settlements. The EPLI policy covers legal costs, regardless of whether the dentist wins or loses the case. EPLI policies typically do not pay for punitive damages or civil or crimnal fines. Liabilities covered by other insurance policies such as general liability and workers compensation are excluded from EPLI policies.

Employment Practices Liability premiums are extremely reasonable, even when third-party discrimination is included. A small dental office in Florida can expect to pay under $2,000 for $1,000,000 coverage. The rate is based on the number of employees in the dental office and other risk factors such as whether there has been a prior employment-related claim.

Remember that just one single employment-related lawsuit can ruin a dental practice and take up an extraordinary amount of time. Every Florida dental office should carry appropriate EPLI coverage. Even if the practice has not experienced an employment-related claim in the past does not mean that one will not happen in the future. If an employee or third party makes an accusation, you must still pay to defend yourself, even if you are innocent!

For more information and for a no-obligation quote, kindly call the experts at Gracey-Backer, Inc. Please remember that quotes are free and we are here to assist you, the Florida dentist, in protecting your practice through quality insurance products.

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When new dental malpractice insurance companies come into Florida, the obvious way for them to garner business is to either purchase a medical malpractice insurer or drop rates to be competitive. This creates a buyer’s market for Florida dentists.

While a Florida dentist still has to be concerned about switching insurers too often, he or she can easily do so early in the career. After that, he or she has to be concerned about securing a free tail policy, which usually requires him to be with the same company for five or more years.

Independent dental malpractice agents represent several companies. The major players in Florida now

• Fortress Insurance Company
• The Doctors Company
• Professional Solutions Insurance Company
• Medical Protective Company
• C N A
• Dentist’s Advantage Insurance Company

An independent agent who is skilled in dental malpractice insurance can steer the Florida dentist to the right company. Depending on their location, specialty, claims history, nearness to retirement, and office structure, any of these excellent companies may be the best for them. And the best may change through the years.

Gracey-Backer, Inc. is one of the oldest and largest dental and physician/surgeon malpractice insurance agencies in the State of Florida. We have been through hard and soft markets. We have helped dentists and physicians with all sorts of “issues”. We have excellent relationships with most of the major dental and medical malpractice insurance companies in Florida. We are willing to shop your policy every year among our strong medical malpractice companies. Our staff is thoughtful, kind, and puts the interest of the client above all.

Because Gracey-Backer, Inc. is a “full service” insurance agency, we can also help the Florida dentist and physician with their other insurance:

• Office Policies
• Personal Home and Auto Insurance
• Personal Umbrella Policies
• Workers’ Compensation Insurance
• Cyber Liability Insurance
• Employment Practices Liability Insurance

Please call today for a no-obligation quote. Remember…quotes are free!!

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We will look closer at some of the other coverages available to a physician and his practice.

Business Property and Liability Insurance
A physician practice needs to protect itself against loss to property or a lawsuit based on what he did or failed to do that caused harm to another’s person or property. This type of insurance is usually purchased separate from the physician professional liability insurance policy. A small practice will purchase a Business Owners Package (BOP), which bundles property and liability coverages together and thus reduces the cost of this important insurance. The policy has other protections, like business interruption insurance, crime insurance, valuable records, and accounts receivable coverage. In some cases, exposure such as Cyber Liability can be endorsed on to the policy for an additional premium.

Workers Compensation Insurance
Florida law requires that a physician practice with four or more employees purchase workers compensation insurance. Workers Compensation insurance is normally a separate policy. Rates are set by the State of Florida, and the cost is solely based on payroll. Some companies offer dividend programs for small practices.

The purpose of workers compensation insurance is to provide employees with financial compensation for medical bills and lost wages due to work-related injury or sickness. Workers compensation benefits are paid regardless of who is at fault in the accident. The Employers Liability coverage protects the physician from lawsuits involving work-related accidents or sickness. The physician can elect to include or exclude himself from this coverage. If a physician practice hires another healthcare practitioner, his or her salary is included in the cost of the insurance. The physician practice may wish to make this practitioner an officer and exclude coverage.

Cyber Liability Insurance
With more and more patient health information being transmitted electronically, physician offices face increasing liability associated with cyber risks. Cyber liability insurance is offered as either a stand alone policy or an endorsement to an existing policy.

Recently, there were some significant changes to the HIPAA/HITECH Federal law covering Personal Health Information (PHI) which place more responsibility on the physician to protect the privacy of his patients. The HIPAA/HITECH Federal Law became effective on March 26, 2013 and became enforceable by the Office of Civil Rights and the State Attorney General on September 23, 2013. Failure to comply could result in a monetary fine up to $1,500,000.

The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Federal Law requires the following items as assurances to safeguard personal health information:

• New requirements regarding Business Associate Agreements
• Requirements to provide patients with electronic copies of their records
• Mandates requiring businesses to have in place the following in regards to protecting personal information:
• Policies and procedures for maintaining confidentiality
• Data encryption for electronic health record systems

Incident response plans in the event of a data breach

• Staff training to promote an environment of compliance

According to Leon Rodriguez, Director of the Office of Civil Rights, “These changes not only greatly enhance a patient’s privacy rights and protections, but also strengthen the ability of my office to vigorously enforce the HIPAA privacy and security protections, regardless of whether the information is being held by a health plan, a health care provider or one of their business associates.”

A Cyber Liability insurance policy covers damages stemming from third-party losses and network privacy. For example, if someone hacks a patient’s medical records, the patient can sue the physician for damages. The cyber liability policy would defend and pay any damages up to the limits of the policy. Secondly, the cyber liability policy covers first-party losses. For example, loss or damage to electronic data, loss of a pracitice’s income associated with a data breach, losses from cyber extortion, and notification costs, which can be very high based on the number of patients in a practice. A cyber liability policy will, thirdly, cover media costs associated with protecting the reputation of the physician who has suffered a data breach. In addition, as a policyholder, the doctor has access to services that will assist his practice in creating policies and procedures, provide sample business associate agreements, staff training to ensure compliance in your practice, a monthly newsletter that highlights changes to any state laws, and much more.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance
In the past, employees gathered around the water cooler to complain about the boss. Now they do their complaining at the local EEOC office. Word has gotten out-with extensive media coverage- that a disgruntled employee or former employee can get a settlement for very little effort. And, in a tanking economy, it is even worse. Suing an employer is easier than collecting unemployment. Increased diversity in the labor force offers a fertile field for discrimination claims. With baby boomers aging, age discrimination claims are up significantly. Employers are more vulnerable than ever.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) covers the physician practice against claims by employees that their legal rights have been violated. Examples of such claims include: Wrongful Termination, Discrimination, Sexual or Workplace Harassment, Breach of Employment Agreement, Wrongful Hiring, Defamation, Failure to Promote etc.

Purchase of Employment Practices Liability Insurance gives the physician benefits as follows:

• Hotline access to employment attorneys from a well-known and highly respected national workplace law firm.
• Sample employment policies and forms, which can be an invaluable resource for the practice, so the physician does not have to develop such policies on his own.
• Training bulletins on current employment issues, to keep the Florida physician up on the latest workplace law trends.

Living in a litigious society in a litigious state like Florida certainly has its costs. Insurance to protect the physician and his practice against the employee who knows their rights and has an attorney on speed dial is one of them. EPLI is not an emerging trend. It has emerged!

Working with an independent agent like Gracey-Backer, Inc., which has specialized in the sales and service of insurance for the healthcare provider since 1925, gives the Florida physician the special advantage of having all his policies through one agency. This gives the agent a comprehensive understanding of the needs of the physician and his practice so it can be continually monitored to ensure that adequate coverage is in place.

Barbara Gracey Backer, CIC, is the Vice-President of Gracey-Backer, Inc., an Insurance Agency in Delray Beach, Florida specializing in All Lines of Professional and Personal Insurance for the Healthcare Provider. She may be contacted at 800-272-6055, ext 128, or at barbara@gbifl.com.

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DOES A FLORIDA PHYSICIAN OR SURGEON WHO HAS JUST PURCHASED A MEDICAL MALPRACTICE INSURANCE TAIL POLICY OR HAS JUST BEEN GIVEN A FREE TAIL HAVE THE SAME INSURANCE HE OR SHE HAD BEFORE?

In general, if a Florida physician or surgeon has a medical malpractice claim brought against him or her during the time specified in the tail policy, then, typically, the claim is covered. But, the physician or surgeon may not have the same coverage that he or she had when the policy was active and prior to the moment he or she purchased the tail insurance.

The following coverages could be lost when a physician or surgeon moves from regular malpractice insurance policy to a tail policy:

• There could be a problem if there is an ongoing claim with current carrier and a medical board complaint is brought for that incident. Coverage for the board complaint could be denied.
• Elimination of the “consent to settle clause”.
• Movement of medical malpractice defense costs to inside the limits of liability.
• Removal of cyber liability and regulatory liability coverage.
• Removal of employment practices liability coverage, if on the primary policy.
• Limits of liability are not reinstated.

The issue of a tail policy is very complicated. Many insurance agents who do not specialize in medical malpractice insurance do not understand it. A Florida physician and surgeon needs to work with a professional insurance agent who has had years of experience in this and other complex medical malpractice issues. Call a professional at Gracey-Backer, Inc. today. You will receive a comprehensive analysis of your current coverage as well as ways to improve either the medical malpractice coverage or the premium, if possible. Remember that quotes are free.

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Here are five things a Physician, Surgeon, Oral Surgeon, or Dentist in Florida should know about Employment Practices Liability Insurance:

• The average U.S. based business with at least 10 employees has a 12.5 percent chance of experiencing an employment practices-related lawsuit.
• During FY 2011 – 15,796 individuals filed 16,974 complaints alleging employment discrimination against the federal government.
• Wage and hour lawsuits have increased for seven straight years and have increased by 438 percent since 2000.
• 7,764 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cases were filed during the yearlong period ending March 31, 2013, up 10% from 2012.
• As of March 31, 2014, wage and hour lawsuits increased to 8,126, up 4.7 percent over the prior 12 month period.

While premiums are increasing, as more claims for Employment Practices Liability are filed against Physicians, Dentists and Oral Surgeons in Florida, there is still a competitive market for Employment Practices Liability Insurance. The bigger companies will provide excellent help in preparing employee manuals, offer webinars to staff, and generally provide risk management strategies. They retain the best labor attorneys to help their clients in the event of a lawsuit, and pay potential fines and penalties for their healthcare provider clients.

Based on an article published in Insurance Journal-National, June 16, 2016, page 14.

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The post Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) appeared first on Gracey-Backer, Inc..

Every physician and surgeon, whether in a large or small office, should consider purchasing Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI). Without this vital protection, you have an exposure that leaves you vulnerable.

EPLI covers suits against you by employees, vendors, independent contractors, or patients for actual or alleged acts such as:

• Wrongful Termination
• Discrimination
• Sexual or Workplace Harassment
• Breach of Employment Agreement
• Wrongful hiring
• Violation of Family Medical Leave Act
• Defamation of Character
• Failure to promote, etc.

Premiums are based on the number of employees in your practice. Legal expenses are covered outside the limit of liability. Third party suits against you, by vendors, independent contractors, sales representatives, patients, etc. are covered.

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