Author: Chris Baxter

Informed consent is a part of the job that all CRNAs need to know. Below, we’ll explain the basics of informed consent, its elements, and how it relates to the duties of CRNAs.

What Is Informed Consent?

Informed consent is one of the fundamental ethical principles in modern medicine and guarantees a patient’s right to self-determination. The medical-legal concept of informed consent as we know it first came about through various court cases in the mid-20th century that stated patients have the right to informed consent.

Basically, informed consent is the communication process between the patient and physician that leads to an agreement or permission for care, treatment, or services. The patient (or their legal representative) has the right to obtain all the information regarding a procedure or treatment and the risks involved before treatment can begin.

What Are the Elements of Informed Consent?

First, the physician must identify an appropriate person to provide informed consent to if the client is incapacitated or mentally unfit to receive and act on the information. Then, the physician will describe the treatment or procedure and provide written materials when possible.

The physician will also describe the risks involved, give their professional opinion on the patient’s options, and answer any questions. The patient can ask questions and obtain a second opinion if they want. If the patient consents to the treatment, they (or their representative) will sign a written letter of informed consent stating their approval.

Can a CRNA Obtain Informed Consent?

While we’ve mentioned physicians obtaining informed consent, can CRNAs obtain it? Yes, a CRNA or nurse will often take on the task of obtaining informed consent. Still, the physician or anesthesiologist will typically be the one to explain the gist and details of the treatment and risks involved.

Usually, the CRNA is the one who returns to the patient later to obtain and witness the written informed consent and answer further questions from the patient. For many CRNAs, it’s one of the basic parts of their responsibilities.

What Are Considered Violations of Informed Consent?

Informed consent is also an area where malpractice cases can occur due to a perceived or real violation of the patient’s rights regarding it. CRNAs need to know that failure to obtain informed consent or withholding pertinent information regarding the treatment or procedure and risks is a significant form of negligence and malpractice.

The most common violation of informed consent is inadequately warning a patient of the risks associated with the medical procedure. If complications arise, it’s not uncommon for patients or their representatives to feel deceived or insufficiently informed regarding the risks. For this reason, CRNA malpractice insurance is essential for all CRNAs.

If you’re a CRNA that needs malpractice insurance, Baxter & Associates is here for you. We will help you find a plan that ensures you’re covered should a malpractice claim arise from an alleged breach of informed consent.

As the primary care professional for many Americans, nurse practitioners can be the targets of malpractice claims just as physicians. We’ll list some of the most common malpractice claims that target nurse practitioners, from diagnosis errors to prescription mistakes.

Failure To Diagnose

Most malpractice claims targeting nurse practitioners (NPs) involve the diagnosis in some way, with failure to diagnose being the most common claim. NPs often serve communities with few or no doctors, making them typically the first medical professionals a patient will see when experiencing symptoms of illness.

If an NP misses something during their initial evaluation or doesn’t order the right tests, it’s likely for serious illnesses like cancer or infection to go unnoticed until it’s too late. NPs serving these areas with few resources should be cautious regarding symptoms and diagnosis.

Medication Errors

Another common malpractice claim against nurse practitioners regards errors with medication. Prescribing and administering medication is one of the principal duties of an NP that they likely do frequently every day.

Errors with medication can come in many forms, from administering the incorrect medicine to prescribing medications together that cause an adverse reaction in the patient. These mistakes may seem simple, but they can cause significant harm or illness in patients, so NPs must diligently and cautiously prescribe medication.

Pain Management

One malpractice claim that’s becoming more common against NPs and other medical professionals concerns pain management. The opioid epidemic is a significant problem in US healthcare, which has shed light on the unethical practice of overprescribing opioids.

NPs are often responsible for prescribing opioids, so they can be the target of a malpractice claim if they knowingly prescribed opioids to an addict or overprescribed the drugs to a patient and caused an opioid addiction. While NPs aren’t typically the target of overprescription claims, the increased focus on this unethical practice affects NPs and physicians.

Improper Treatment & Care

Improper treatment and care is a vague term for the malpractice of a medical professional mishandling a patient’s condition. NPs are often responsible for the primary care for millions of Americans, so they can be held responsible if their condition worsens due to the NP’s diagnosis and treatment.

A claim of improper treatment can mean many things, but it’s often associated with providing the incorrect treatment or a treatment that carries an unnecessary risk to the patient. If it’s found that the treatment for a patient’s illness was too risky and caused significant harm or death, the NP can be found responsible.

There are many other claims against nurse practitioners, so NP liability insurance is critical for any practicing NP. If you’re a nurse practitioner needing liability insurance, Baxter & Associates can help you find the right insurance policy.

Even the best chiropractors and practices have bad days with frustrated clients. Below, we’ll offer tips for chiropractors to deal with unhappy clients respectfully without ruining the relationship.

Why Clients Complain

A good way to go about dealing with upset clients is to understand why they’re complaining. Clients often complain because they have high expectations—sometimes unrealistically high—but it shows that they believe in your skills and hope for good results.

Some clients will complain because they’re frustrated—progress has been slow, or their body isn’t responding how they hoped. We’ve all had those moments of pure frustration, and it’s often just another sign that they believe in the promise of the treatment plan. Sometimes, clients complain because they want to be heard and need to vent some of their frustrations.

How To Deal with Unhappy Clients

Keep in mind the most common reasons that unhappy chiropractic clients complain; the best tips we can offer to deal with these complaints are to be honest, patient, and respectful.

Be Honest

Sometimes, you or your staff will make mistakes, and it’s perfectly alright to be honest about them. If a staff member double-booked an appointment slot with two clients, there’s not much to do except own up to it.

Mistakes and disappointment are possible during treatment. Even with all the expertise and skills available, progress in the treatment plan won’t always be as fast or significant as hoped. If you’re deflecting blame or making excuses, you’ll appear untrustworthy to patients—it’s better to be honest about mistakes.

Be Patient

As mentioned previously, clients often want to vent their frustrations, so chiropractors must be patient. When a client is leveling a critique or grievance that may not be completely logical, it’s not wise to correct or interrupt them.

Hear the complaints patiently, take the lumps when they come, and offer honest feedback. Often, a complaint will go away or be retracted if the chiropractor is patient and the client feels they have been heard respectfully.

Be Respectful

A chiropractor should always be respectful of clients and their time. Perhaps the most common complaint is waiting time—it’s tough to maintain a tight schedule, but clients left waiting long periods feel disrespected.

Even if the client is upset, lodging a complaint, and not acting respectfully, you and your staff should still be as respectful as possible. If the client and the complaint are treated with respect, that’ll go a long way toward maintaining the relationship and loyalty of the client.

Sometimes, unhappy clients and complaints can turn into malpractice lawsuits. For those times, you’ll need a chiropractic malpractice insurance agency like Baxter & Associates. Contact us today, and we’ll help you find the ideal policy for you and your practice.

Does your chiropractic practice have a clear and thorough compliance program? If not, we’ll show you the basics of a compliance plan and how to make one for your chiropractic practice.

What Is a Chiropractic Compliance Plan?

First, what is a chiropractic compliance plan? A compliance plan is a formalized system of procedures and policies that help an organization or practice prevent, detect, and resolve conduct that government bodies and healthcare organizations have deemed unethical and illegal.

Basically, it’s a plan to keep an organization honest by holding itself and its employees accountable for unethical practices like fraud, waste, and abuse. Most healthcare providers are required to have a compliance program in place. However, even if your chiropractic practice isn’t legally required to have one, it is highly recommended that any practice that deals with insurance billing have a program in place.

Why Does My Practice Need a Compliance Program?

If you’re a chiropractic practice that isn’t legally mandated to have a compliance program, why should you have one? Why go through all the trouble?

Prevent Unethical Conduct

The principal motivation for an organization’s stringent and clear compliance program is to deter, detect, and resolve unethical practices. Unfortunately, unethical practices like fraud and abuse are rife in healthcare, especially with insurance billing.

But with an effective compliance program in place, practices can detect unethical conduct before it worsens and spreads, resolving it for the betterment of all parties. Simply put, a compliance program is the best way for a practice to ensure its employees behave honestly and reliably.

Shield Organization From Sanctions

When a healthcare provider like a chiropractic practice comes under scrutiny in the form of a records request or investigation, one of the first things authorities will examine is the compliance program. With a clear and useful compliance plan, a practice has a stronger defense against accusations of organizational wrongdoing.

Let’s say a legal authority finds an effective compliance plan at a practice where an employee committed insurance fraud. In this case, the authority is more likely to be lenient with discipline and isolate sanctions against the individual instead of the organization. So for a pure self-preservation motive, a compliance plan is integral to any chiropractic practice.

Establish Credibility

A compliance program helps create a more ethical and honest working environment for a chiropractic practice. This makes it a more credible organization in the eyes of peers, authorities, and partners such as insurance agencies. Credibility is essential for a practice to survive in an industry like healthcare, as your practice has a tremendous responsibility to patients and other healthcare organizations.

Furthermore, a compliance plan is helpful when finding chiropractic liability insurance. Insurance providers want to assume the least risk possible, so an enforced compliance plan bodes well for them.

What Your Chiropractic Practice’s Compliance Plan Needs

Now that you know why a compliance plan is important, we’ll explain what every chiropractic practice compliance plan needs and how you can make one for your practice.

Internal Audits

The first step in a compliance program is an internal audit to show that the chiropractic practice is identifying and improving compliance from within. It’s wise to start with an Office of Inspector General (OIG) compliance manual and review the work plan that helps organizations identify areas of concern.

After the initial audit, you should conduct internal audits and monitoring yearly at the chiropractic practice to identify any issues. If the same compliance infractions keep appearing from a certain source, the audits may have to be more frequent until they show the problems have been permanently resolved.

For the initial internal audit, consider hiring a compliance consultant who can provide professional expertise and show the organization the proper way of doing things.

Written Standards & Procedures

Once the initial audit is complete, the chiropractic practice will receive a report card that identifies areas of risk in the organization. To address these areas of risk, the head of the chiropractic practice and the compliance officer or committee will update the written policies and procedures of the practice.

Every organization must distribute these compliance policies and documents to employees. Ensure these policies are concise and easy to understand; dense and wordy policies are less effective. Basically, any employee or outsider should clearly understand what is compliant and what is non-compliant from these written policies.

Designated Compliance Officer

While some heads of chiropractic practices may deem themselves qualified, selecting someone other than the head of the organization as the designated compliance officer is wise. A compliance officer has many responsibilities, and the head of a chiropractic practice already has enough to worry about.

Some practices select a compliance committee to divvy the responsibilities among multiple people. For example, one person conducts internal audits, and another implements a training program.

You may also choose to hire an outsider as a compliance officer rather than hire within the company. This may provide added impartiality.

Employee Compliance Training & Education

Obviously, for a compliance plan to be effective, all employees must know and learn about the program. Every new hire should receive compliance training, and all current employees should undergo compliance reviews yearly.

It’s also wise to have focused compliance training for specific departments and roles, as different areas of the practice may differ in compliance requirements.

Outlined Actions to Violations

Within the written compliance standards, you should also outline responses to compliance violations. Essentially, if someone detects a violation, how should they report and investigate it?

Having the plan outlined with clear rules makes the process more straightforward and helps ensure honest and accurate investigations into violations. If a plan only identifies unethical violations with no recourse or further steps, it’s not an effective plan of action.

Reliable Lines of Communication

Communication is a vital aspect of any compliance program. If any employee sees a potential violation but does not have access to reliable lines of communication to report the activity, they are less likely to report it.

Having open, confidential, and non-retaliatory communication policies are crucial in detecting compliance violations. It’s also useful for employees to ask questions and clarify compliance rules without the threat of suspicion.

Disciplinary Standards

The written policy should include clearly-defined disciplinary actions regarding various violations and their severity—whether it be intentional fraud, negligence, or failure to report a violation.

Without clear ramifications for violations, employees may not take the plan seriously—and legal authorities may not either.

If you need further help conducting a compliance plan for your chiropractic practice, consider contacting our helpful staff at Baxter & Associates. We are here to provide your practice with the tools it needs to succeed.

Moonlighting is common in health care, especially among nurse anesthetists. It can be an excellent way to expand your skillset and increase your earning potential. If you’re a nurse anesthetist considering a second job, you should know a few things before moonlighting.

It Comes with Risks

Any type of moonlighting in healthcare can increase stress levels for even experienced nurse anesthetists. While moonlighting can be an excellent opportunity to earn extra income and gain experience, there are also drawbacks. Whether you’re a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) or a janitor, working two jobs can take a physical and mental toll that comes with risks.

Working as a nurse anesthetist inherently comes with risks— a CRNA’s performance can directly affect a patient’s health. Mistakes as a CRNA can have significant consequences, which is why CRNA malpractice insurance is even more crucial for those who moonlight at a second job.

You May Need Additional Insurance

Finding moonlighting jobs can be as easy as reaching out to a recruiter or talking to a friend. As a nurse anesthetist, you should already have professional liability insurance, but before moonlighting, you should know that your existing policy doesn’t automatically cover your second job. As we said, moonlighting brings additional risks, and while some policies may also cover a second job, some may strictly disallow it.

Before you start or consider moonlighting, look over the fine print of your insurance policy regarding moonlighting. Sometimes, you may need additional coverage for your second job, which can eat into any extra income moonlighting provides.

There Are Different Kinds of Moonlighting

Some aren’t aware that there are different types of moonlighting—internal and external—and the distinction could determine whether your malpractice policy covers your second job or not. Internal moonlighting is when a person takes a second job within the same facility as their primary position.

External moonlighting, as you may guess, is when a person takes a second job outside their primary position’s location. Some professional liability policies cover internal moonlighting but not external, so check your policy before deciding to moonlight.

Not Everyone’s Cut Out for It

Before moonlighting, every nurse and worker should understand that not everyone can handle the responsibilities of multiple jobs. While moonlighting in nursing is pretty common, that doesn’t mean every nurse can or should do it.

Nursing itself is a challenging profession, so adding another job on top of it can be too much for many people. Before deciding to moonlight, consider its effect on your ability to perform your primary position, your personal life, and your mental and physical health.

We hope our guide has helped you better understand moonlighting as a nurse anesthetist and its implications. If you need malpractice insurance or have questions about a policy, contact our expert staff at Baxter & Associates.

Malpractice claims are an unfortunate part of being a medical professional—whether you’re a physician, nurse, or nurse practitioner. To better understand these claims and how to avoid them, we’ve compiled a list of common sources of malpractice allegations levied against nurse practitioners.

Diagnosis-Related Allegations

The most frequent source of malpractice allegations against nurse practitioners (NPs) comes from the patient’s diagnosis. Often, a patient will see an NP before they visit a doctor and consult the NP about whether they need further treatment from a physician.

Failure to diagnose a patient is a widespread malpractice claim where an NP doesn’t recognize the symptoms of an illness or injury or fails to order additional testing that would’ve helped in the diagnosis. A disease or injury untreated can cause severe harm or death to a patient, and the NP is a frequent target in malpractice claims.

Medication Errors

One of an NP’s principal duties is prescribing and administering medication to a patient. Within medication administration, there are many opportunities for errors, such as:

• Prescribing harmful medication
• Dispensing the wrong amount of a medication
• Administering the incorrect dose
• Failure to dispense the drug at all

Medication is crucial to a patient’s health and wellbeing—simple mistakes like administering the wrong medication or medication the patient is allergic to can have dire consequences.

Pain Management

Within medication errors, there’s been a growing trend of pain management malpractice that’s coincided with the opioid epidemic. Overprescribing pain medication to patients can lead to addiction—jeopardizing the patient’s health and life.

NPs and physicians alike have had to adjust their pain management prescriptions to better diagnose the signs of addiction and be more cautious in prescribing addictive opioids. If not, they could be found liable for a patient’s addiction.

Improper Treatment

An NP has many daily duties and can also be responsible for numerous patients. Naturally, an NP can’t be everywhere at once, so if patients are overcrowded, mistakes can happen.

Some malpractice claims against NPs regarding inadequate treatment include not responding to a patient promptly, failing to report a change in the patient’s status, or even injuring the patient with a medical procedure.

As anyone can see, there are many opportunities for malpractice claims against NPs, which is why a malpractice insurance plan for nurse practitioners is essential. Mistakes happen, and patients can get hurt, but it’s not always the NP’s fault and doesn’t mean they should be liable.

Unfortunately, malpractice litigation is a regular part of practicing as a chiropractor or any other medical professional. This guide explores several tips that chiropractors can utilize to avoid chiropractic malpractice claims.

Communicate With Patients

A lack of communication is at the center of many chiropractic malpractice claims. Miscommunication is the culprit behind many errors from chiropractors and misconceptions from patients about treatment and results.

Communication between a chiropractor and patient should be thorough and precise before, during, and after any treatment or procedure. A patient should understand the chiropractor’s treatment plan, why they chose that treatment, and the expected results so that there are no misconceptions throughout the process.

Pro Tip: Body language is just as important to effective communication as talking. Ensure your body language communicates attentive reception and understanding.

Avoid Sales Language

While communicating with patients, chiropractors don’t want to sound like they’re selling treatment to a patient. Sometimes, a patient can feel like they’ve been misled because a chiropractor guaranteed things like pain-free treatment or results that weren’t realistic.

A chiropractor should explain their treatment plan for a patient and why they think it’s the right decision, but be cautious of overpromising or sounding like a salesperson. If patients don’t feel the treatment delivered on the chiropractor’s promises, they may seek retribution through a malpractice claim.

Create a Positive Office Experience

Patients with a pleasant experience at the chiropractor’s office are less likely to feel mistreated and file a malpractice claim. A positive office experience can make patients feel cared for and appreciated, even if that experience has nothing to do with their treatment.

Many things go into creating a positive office experience for patients, but two key factors many patients cite are courteous staff and punctual appointments. We know how difficult it can be to keep everything on schedule throughout the day, but operating your business in a timely fashion is a simple way to ensure patients are happy.

Don’t Slack on Documentation

Medical documentation plays a vital factor in many malpractice claims and can help prevent chiropractic malpractice altogether. For one, thorough and precise documentation ensures that nothing is overlooked throughout treatment and helps chiropractors reduce procedure mistakes.

Documentation also provides a reliable record of treatment, from the first consultation to the patient’s medical history and notes from each appointment. If a mistake happens because a patient failed to notify the chiropractor about a preexisting condition, the documentation will provide proof of the omission.

Hopefully, you never come across a malpractice claim as a chiropractor, but it’s always best to be prepared with chiropractic malpractice insurance. If you’re looking for malpractice insurance or want to learn more, feel free to contact our staff at Baxter & Associates.

We don’t like to think about bad days and disasters, but they’re a part of life. For businesses like medical practices, there are many ways that a mistake or accident could exceptionally damage their revenue and financial security.

That’s why there are many different types of medical insurance to help protect practices in worst-case scenarios. Our guide will break down some of the most critical coverage policies that every medical practice should own or seriously consider.

#1: Professional Liability Insurance

Professional liability insurance is perhaps the number one type of medical insurance you should prioritize to protect your practice. Otherwise known as medical malpractice insurance, professional liability insurance protects practices if errors from staff members result in patient suffering or death.

Medical malpractice litigation comes with the territory of medical practices, and without sufficient liability insurance for health care facilities, your practice could be on the hook for substantial damages. The average successful malpractice claim means hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Practices must have liability insurance to ensure a mistake and malpractice claim doesn’t bankrupt them.

#2: Property Insurance

A medical practice, big or small, is like any other brick-and-mortar business—it contains valuable property inside its walls like medical equipment and furniture. Property insurance covers damaged property and equipment in medical practices from accidents, natural disasters, or criminal activity.

It may not be the most important aspect of medical practice, but it’s hard to attract and keep patients comfortable without some furniture! Property insurance is there to replace your property quickly should the worst occur, from fires to theft.

#3: Business Interruption Insurance

Business interruption insurance is like a type of property insurance in that it deals with damage to the physical property of a practice. However, instead of covering the damages to the property, business interruption insurance covers the loss of income of shutting down a practice due to property damage.

If your practice ever suffers severe property damage, property insurance may replace some valuables, but what about the loss of income from closing the business for days, weeks, or months? Business interruption insurance supplements your practice’s income so you don’t have to worry about paying for rent or utilities while your business recovers.

#4: Worker’s Compensation Insurance

Worker’s compensation insurance is reimbursement for the business should an employee become ill or injured on the job. The insurance can cover medical expenses and replenish wages for workers who can no longer perform their duties.

Workers’ compensation laws vary from state to state—in some, it’s legally required, while in others, it depends on the number of employed workers and other factors. Whether or not you’re legally required to procure worker’s compensation insurance, it’s still valuable coverage for any small business, especially a medical practice.

#5: Practice Overhead Insurance

Are you a large revenue generator for your practice? For small businesses that would suffer greatly should the owner be absent, practice overhead insurance helps cover business overhead expenses.

Practice overhead insurance is different from disability income insurance as it doesn’t directly supplement an individual’s income. Instead, it helps cover overhead expenses of the practice. If your business would struggle significantly without your presence for days or weeks, you’ll want to consider practice overhead insurance to ensure overhead bills don’t get out of hand.

Overhead expenses that practice overhead insurance covers typically include:

• Utilities
• Rent
• Staff salaries
• Property taxes
• Accounting/legal fees
• Professional dues

#6: Life Insurance

It may seem morbid, but there’s no guarantee of tomorrow for anyone—and medical professionals know this, especially. That’s why life insurance is also critical for medical practice owners should the worst occur.

In the case of death, life insurance helps to cover costs and expenses for beneficiaries, including business partners. If you’re in a practice with significant partners, it’s wise for all partners to have life insurance policies in case the worst should happen.

#7: Business Auto Insurance

Business auto insurance is for practices that use vehicles as part of everyday business. If you’re a doctor who makes house calls, business auto insurance would be a good idea in case you should get into an accident while driving for work.

Or, if your practice uses company vehicles like vans for transporting employees or patients, business auto insurance ensures it’s protected should an accident or theft occur. Most personal auto insurance policies don’t cover losses or damages if a vehicle is used for business purposes. Business auto insurance covers this gap for automobiles.

Bonus Insurance Coverage for Practices to Consider

Those are some of the most critical insurance policies for medical practices, but there are still others that practice owners should consider. Two worth mentioning are employment practices liability insurance and employee disability insurance.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance

While you obviously believe in your staff and trust them to make the right decisions, you don’t want one of their mistakes to cost your practice’s financial security. Employment practices liability insurance covers businesses should an employee file litigation against the practice or another employee.

The litigation can be against the practice for wrongful termination or discrimination, or it could be against an employee for workplace harassment. The insurance covers legal defense costs and possible damages caused by the lawsuit. Hopefully, you never have to use it, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Employee Disability Insurance

If you have a rather small practice with only a handful of medical professionals and revenue-generators, you understand that every employee is crucial to the practice’s operation. If an employee for a small practice is sick or injured, it could mean a sizable hit to the practice’s revenue.

Employee disability insurance differs from worker’s compensation since it covers lost revenue due to an employee suffering an injury or sickness outside the workplace. The policy also covers the loss of revenue from a missing employee so workers and practice owners have better peace of mind. Plus, it doesn’t require a disability, just enough injury or illness for the medical professional to be unable to see patients or perform their duties.

Hopefully, our guide has enlightened you on some of the key insurance policies that every medical practice should have, no matter its size or specialty of medicine. You may not think you need some of these insurance policies, but all it takes is one bad day to devastate a medical practice—unless it’s covered with insurance.

If you’re interested in learning more about medical practice insurance or purchasing a medical malpractice insurance policy, contact the experts at Baxter & Associates.

Malpractice insurance is, unfortunately, a requirement in many professions. Our guide explores the most common professions that utilize malpractice insurance below.

Primary Physicians

The most common profession for malpractice insurance is the primary physician in medical treatment. It’s easy to see why—healthcare often comes with life-and-death stakes, and if a physician makes a diagnostic or therapy error, it could lead to severe patient suffering or death.

That’s why liability insurance for healthcare facilities is essential for any hospital or care facility with primary physicians—it’s only a matter of when, not if, a malpractice claim is filed. Doctors are incredibly skilled and educated but still make mistakes like the rest of us. Without sufficient coverage, one physician’s mistake could cost them and the healthcare facility they practice in.

Attorneys & Lawyers

It’s not just medical professionals who have to worry about malpractice—legal professionals often face malpractice claims too. If a lawyer’s client is unhappy with their care and services, they can file a malpractice suit for damages in the thousands or millions of dollars. While malpractice insurance isn’t required in some states, it’s vital for practicing attorneys to have some form of liability insurance.

Examples of why a client may file a malpractice claim against their attorney include:

• Failing to disclose a conflict of interest
• Not communicating with the client
• Missing court dates
• Missing statutes of limitations

When a court case could decide a person’s life and liberty, lawyers can become targets for litigation afterward.

Nurses

Nurses may not have the same diagnosis and treatment responsibilities that a primary physician may have over a patient, but they handle much of the day-to-day treatment. Since nurses are not as responsible, they’re not as often named in malpractice litigation but still get targeted frequently.

Much malpractice litigation against nurses involves administering medication to a patient—either the wrong drug, the wrong amount, or the failure to administer medication. With nursing personnel stretched thin across the country, nurses will likely face greater malpractice claims in the future.

Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA)

All nurses can face litigation, but one profession facing a growing number of claims is CRNAs. A CRNA works directly with an anesthesiologist to administer anesthesiology and is responsible for their well-being before, during, and after surgery.

CRNAs are in demand now more than ever before as anesthesiology becomes a growing medical field—but with this growth is also an increase in malpractice litigation. Typically, the anesthesiologist is targeted, but CRNAs can be just as culpable if a patient is to suffer or die while administered anesthesia.

Chiropractors

The stakes are slightly lower for chiropractors than typical physicians or nurses, but chiropractic malpractice litigation is still common. A chiropractor can be sued if their spinal manipulation treatment harms or immobilizes a patient or if they fail to diagnose an illness or injury in the patient.

Common injuries that result in chiropractic malpractice claims include:

• Nerve damage
• Recurring headaches
• Disc herniation
• Muscle weakness
• Spinal stenosis

These professions are all different, but what they share is that they need sufficient liability insurance to protect them in case of malpractice litigation.

Along with education, skills training, and hands-on experience, chiropractors need a few things for their careers to thrive. Malpractice coverage is essential for medical professionals, and in this guide we’ll explain why chiropractors benefit from malpractice insurance and some of the basics of malpractice insurance.

What Is Malpractice Insurance?

Before we get into why all chiropractors can benefit from malpractice insurance, what exactly is malpractice insurance anyway? Malpractice insurance is particular professional liability insurance catered explicitly to medical professionals and businesses, like chiropractors.

A medical malpractice claim can arise from many situations, but most commonly from medical services that result in patient injury or death. It’s essential for medical professionals to have malpractice insurance—whether they’re a physician, nurse, chiropractor, or any other professional—as a malpractice claim could cost the defendant hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

Most malpractice insurance covers costs such as:

• Attorney fees
• Arbitration costs
• Settlement costs
• Medical damages
• Chiropractic License Investigation defense
• Defense for Billing errors

There are two types of policies medical professionals can choose from in malpractice insurance: claims-made or occurrence coverage.

Claims-Made vs. Occurrence Malpractice Insurance

When a medical professional, like a chiropractor, chooses malpractice insurance, they must choose between claims-made or occurrence coverage. But what’s the difference between these coverages, and which is better for chiropractors?

Claims-Made Policy

A claims-made policy only provides coverage for incidents that occur and are reported while the insured holds the policy with the insurance carrier. In essence, the incident and the claim filing must happen while the policy is still active for the claim to be covered.

Pro Tip: If there’s a gap of time between an old and new insurance policy and you don’t want to be vulnerable to claims, you can purchase tail coverage.

If, for example, a chiropractor has claims-made coverage for 10 years but then retires and lets their policy expire, they would no longer be covered for those years. A malpractice claim that’s reported and filed five years later, when the policy passed, would not be covered by insurance if the policyholder allowed the coverage to expire.

Most malpractice insurance policies are claims-made, as they’re more affordable than occurrence coverage.

Occurrence Policy

An occurrence malpractice policy differs from claims-made because the policy could expire, but the policyholder would still be covered for the time they owned the policy. Let’s return to the example we used in the claims-made section.

If a claim is filed five years into a chiropractor’s retirement but had an occurrence policy, he would still be covered. An occurrence policy is a lifelong coverage, even if the policy itself later expires—the policyholder is always covered for that period when the patient had the treatment.

Occurrence policies may be more extensive in their coverage, but they’re also typically more expensive, making them less common than claims-made coverage.

Do Chiropractors Need Malpractice Insurance?

Chiropractors aren’t conducting intensive medical procedures or life-altering diagnoses, so do they need malpractice insurance? The answer is yes!

Like any other medical professional, chiropractors are sometimes sued by patients and patients’ families for damaged and alleged neglect. Chiropractors deal with spinal manipulation, and sometimes patients blame chiropractors for not solving their spinal issues.

Damages and compensation can result in thousands or millions of dollars, so if a chiropractor isn’t covered with chiropractor professional liability insurance, one claim could financially ruin them.

Types of Malpractice Claims Against Chiropractors

While good communication and documentation can help you avoid chiropractic malpractice claims, they still happen. Malpractice claims are particular to the individual litigant, but most claims against chiropractors fall under a couple of categories: a failure to diagnose and harm the patient from treatment.

Failure To Diagnose

One of the most common medical malpractice claims in the industry is a failure by a physician to diagnose an illness or injury. Failure to diagnose is also a common complaint against chiropractors, although not as prevalent as other medical specialties.

A chiropractor is more limited than a typical physician in a hospital or healthcare facility because they have fewer resources, like X-rays and other diagnostic tests. Plus, patients are often referred to chiropractors by physicians, so the original physician is typically liable if an initial diagnosis is missed.

But there are still cases where a chiropractor was found liable for failing to diagnose a spinal injury, leading to further pain and damage to the patient.

Harm to the Patient From Treatment

The more common malpractice claim against chiropractors is harm to the patient from treatment. We all know how critical spinal health is to our quality of life, and an error in treatment or diagnosis can lead to severe consequences for the patient.

Some common side effects of ineffective chiropractic treatment include:

• Neck injuries
• Nerve damage
• Herniated discs
• Soreness
• Headaches
• Stroke

These types of injuries are rare, but they do happen and can be caused from chiropractic treatment errors. Patients will rightly look for compensation for their suffering when these injuries happen, and the chiropractor will most likely be found liable.

Why All Chiropractors Benefit From Malpractice Insurance

All Businesses Have Risk

There’s risk involved in any business, whether it’s a chiropractic practice, an autobody shop, or a restaurant. Every business should carry professional liability coverage, but chiropractors especially need the protection to ensure financial security. It’s one of the most effective ways to reduce risk for your chiropractic practice.

Responsible for Patient’s Health

A chiropractor may not have the same responsibilities as a surgeon or physician, but they still control the health and quality of life of a patient in their hands. You don’t have to be a medical expert to understand spinal health’s importance to your overall health!

A patient trusts a chiropractor to help them feel better, and if a mistake is made, the results could cause severe damage and suffering to a patient. A chiropractor can’t assume they’ll be perfect their entire career and never make a mistake—they need safety nets and insurance coverage should problems arise.

Protect Themselves and Their Business

Many chiropractors own their businesses and are small business owners. A threat to their career, like a malpractice claim, doesn’t just threaten themselves but their entire business and financial security.

As the owner of a practice, a chiropractor is directly responsible for what occurs in their practice. Without insurance, it could mean they’re liable for injuries sustained on the premises they’re not involved in but still accountable since it’s their practice. Stay protected and preserve your future with medical malpractice insurance. For more information and a free quote, contact Baxter & Associates today!