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As a nurse practitioner (NP), you have the opportunity to work in a variety of healthcare settings and provide a wide range of services to patients. However, the scope of practice for NPs varies depending on the state in which you practice. Some states allow NPs to practice independently, while others require physician oversight.

In the healthcare community, there’s a debate about the scope of practice and independent practice for nurse practitioners (NP). In our guide, we’ll explain the basics of this discussion and break down the laws regarding the independent practice authority of NPs and the benefits of full practice authority to NPs and patients.

Scope of Practice for NPs

What does the scope of practice mean, and how does it apply to NPs? Scope of practice refers to the procedures, actions, and processes a healthcare professional, such as an NP, is legally permitted to do.

The scope of practice for an NP can vary from state to state, as each state has the legal authority to enact its scope of practice laws on healthcare professionals such as NPs. In all states, though, NPs have the scope of practice to assess, diagnose, treat, and manage illnesses by ordering, conducting, and interpreting tests or prescribing medication. The discrepancy from state to state involves the supervision of NPs.

Independent Practice for NPs

For NPs, independent practice allows them to provide care without the mandated supervision from a physician that some states require. An NP that works in a state with full practice authority can open their own practice and assess, diagnose, and treat patients in much the same way a physician might.

There are also degrees of independence that vary by state, and the debate of scope of practice vs. independent practice for NPs can be a contentious topic between NPs and physicians. There’s some friction among healthcare professionals because some states require NPs to compensate physicians for overseeing their work. Naturally, NPs prefer to be independent and not be on the hook for this expense.

Prescriptive Authority for NPs

Much of the discussion and debate on the independence of NPs revolves around the issue of prescriptive authority. Prescriptive authority is a health professional’s legal ability to prescribe prescriptive medication.

In all 50 states, NPs have prescriptive authority, but the degree to which they can exercise this authority without mandated physician supervision is where the debate between scope and independence hinges. NP advocates say the extra step of supervision and legal barriers is wasteful and only harms the patient through delays and expenses. In contrast, others claim that supervision is explicitly for the patient’s benefit.

State boards of nursing aim to earn the ability to regulate prescriptive authority instead of physician state boards, which is the situation in many states currently.

Practice Regulation for NPs

As we discussed, there are some discrepancies between states regarding the legal practice authority of NPs. The states are divided into three categories of varying independence—full practice, reduced practice, and restricted practice authority.

Full Practice Authority

There are benefits of full practice authority for nurse practitioners. In a full practice authority state, NPs can prescribe, diagnose, and treat patients without physician oversight. Full practice states allow NPs to establish and operate their independent practice as a physician may do in other states.

NPs can freely prescribe medication based on their education, training, and skills for a patient and also prescribe other health services like home care. As of this writing, around half the states (and Washington DC) have full practice authority laws for NPs, while the other half are basically evenly split between reduced and restricted laws.

Reduced Practice Authority

As its title suggests, reduced practice authority laws allow for some independence on behalf of NPs but limit their scope of practice in at least one area. The area that’s limited for NPs varies by state, but it’s most often in the area of prescriptive authority.

In most reduced practice states, NPs can still diagnose and treat patients, but physician oversight is required when prescribing medicine or health services.

Restricted Practice Authority

At the other end of the spectrum, the opposite of full practice authority is restricted practice authority states. Clearly, these states are the most restrictive and require that an onsite physician supervise NPs for the prescription, diagnosis, and treatment of patients.

While a handful of states still have restrictive laws, their number has diminished in recent years as most states are at least creating legislation to lax restrictive laws and move towards reduced practice authority instead of restrictive.

Benefits of Full Practice Authority for NPs and Patients

NPs are strong advocates for full practice authority and offer many arguments for why it would improve the healthcare system and provide better care for patients. We’ll explain some benefits of full practice authority that NPs cite below.

Greater Access to Care

Perhaps the primary benefit of affording full practice authority to NPs is that it allows for greater patient access to medical care. In many areas of the country, especially rural regions that are sparsely populated, physicians and doctors are scarce, and medical resources are stretched thin.

With full practice authority, NPs can open independent practices and treat patients as a physician would without legally requiring supervision from a physician. This independence for NPs means that patients will have more choices in the areas where they live in to provide more healthcare to areas that traditionally have few options.

Fill Personnel Shortages

Unfortunately, gaps in the American healthcare system regarding access to care in many places are due to personnel shortages. During the pandemic, healthcare personnel shortages became evident in many areas of the country as physicians and nurses were shorthanded in dealing with the influx of patients.

According to many experts, those personnel shortages are expected to only worsen as physician and nursing shortages are predicted throughout the decade. NPs can help fill the gap in personnel from these shortages, especially for physicians, by providing quality care and access to full practice authority.

Better Care to Patients

Many NPs also rave about the direct benefit to the patient when NPs are allowed full practice authority. As we discussed, full authority means patients have more options—which means less time waiting for appointments and quicker follow-ups.

Patients no longer have to drive hours in some parts of the country to see a physician or wait around for NPs to have their prescription orders confirmed by supervising physicians. Overall, full authority means a faster, more accessible, and better healthcare experience for many patients.

Conclusion

There are many other considerations when discussing practice authority for NPs, including nurse practitioner malpractice insurance, but overall, NPs would prefer the accountability and responsibility of independent practice rather than the restrictive supervision measures. If you have further questions about nurse practitioner practice authority or malpractice insurance, don’t hesitate to contact our expert staff at Baxter & Associates.

Like other clinicians, nurse practitioners can also be subjected to claims of malpractice. Having malpractice insurance can reduce your risk of liability. If you have further questions about nurse practitioner practice authority or malpractice insurance, don’t hesitate to contact our expert staff at Baxter & Associates.

Are you about to start a chiropractic practice? Before you open your doors, reduce the risk of litigation and malpractice claims when starting your chiropractic practice with these simple but effective tips.

Start Small

Whether starting a chiropractic practice or any new business, it’s best to begin lean and small. As you acquire more patients and your practice expands, you can increase the staff, if necessary, but most practices only have a handful of employees anyway.

One of the most common mistakes for new practices and businesses is overreaching too early and extending resources and money too thin at the beginning. Start with the basics and expand from there if needed.

Keep Accurate Records

Thorough documentation is crucial to any medical practice. Chiropractic practices must maintain accurate and secure medical records to help reduce malpractice risk and better treat patients.

For medical practices, there are three options for documentation—old-fashioned paper records, electronic medical records, and more comprehensive electronic health records. Consider your staff and documentation capability before choosing one system for your practice.

Create a Positive Office Experience

Another way to ensure that your patients are happy is to create a positive office experience in your practice. Whether they interact with only you or multiple employees, patient personal interactions can significantly influence whether they seek a malpractice claim.

Pro Tip: Consider an automatic call distribution or voice mail system to provide immediate assistance or help to patients in an emergency.

Patients who feel mistreated or disrespected are much more likely to file a malpractice claim than those who had a positive experience with the staff. Simple things like courtesy and maintaining appointments can go a long way in reducing risk for practices.

Get Insurance

Perhaps the most effective way to reduce risk when starting a chiropractic practice is to ensure you and your employees are covered by insurance. Chiropractic malpractice insurance is essential for any medical practice in case of errors or misunderstandings during treatment.

Without adequate professional liability insurance, you may be financially responsible for paying out a malpractice claim against an employee or for a mistake you had nothing to do with.

Emphasize Communication

Communication is at the heart of many malpractice claims. Emphasize it for yourself, and the rest of your team is crucial to reducing risk. Clear communication between you and the patient, the patient to you, and the patient to staff are essential for a well-functioning practice.

Make sure the patient is clear on the treatment, its effects, and the goals of the treatment before proceeding. And make sure there are clear procedures and rules with staff about communicating clearly and effectively.

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) fulfill an essential role in healthcare, but with that responsibility comes risks and consequences when mistakes happen. In our guide, we’ll go over some of the most common errors from CRNAs in their profession that cause malpractice claims against them.

We’ll explain how these errors happen and offer some strategies on how CRNAs can avoid risk.

Do CRNAs Get Sued Often?

Before we get into the errors that may cause malpractice claims against CRNAs, we have to ask: do they get sued that often?

Yes. It isn’t uncommon to be named in a lawsuit as a nurse anesthetist.

CRNAs are not shielded from litigation and are the targets of malpractice claims if the patient determines an individual mistake from the CRNA caused their pain and suffering. CRNAs are the most frequently sued nursing specialty. The number of CRNAs as defendants has steadily grown over the years, and experts forecast the litigation to continue as the number of malpractice lawsuits grows.

Common CRNA Mistakes That Cause Malpractice Claims

While CRNAs are not always the focus of malpractice litigation, some individual mistakes can get traced back to errors from CRNAs. In cases of these mistakes, CRNAs can become the target of litigation and held responsible for a patient’s suffering or even expiration. With that in mind, here are some common CRNA mistakes to watch out for.

Communication Problems

A common theme in many malpractice claims against CRNAs is that a lack of communication between the patient, CRNA, and anesthesiologist resulted in improper or inadequate procedures. CRNAs often have multiple patients to monitor, and most require extra care—some are in the preassessment stage, some are getting prepped for anesthesia, and others are in post-op observation.

With so many patients to juggle, it’s easy for things to get missed, lost in translation, or forgotten entirely. A common example of a communication problem is when a CRNA or anesthesiologist conducts a pre-anesthetic evaluation but doesn’t discuss findings with the other parties, resulting in a faulty anesthesia plan that harms the patient.

Improper Positioning

Another common error that CRNAs must avoid in their profession is unsuitable patient positioning during anesthesia and operation. During a procedure involving anesthesia, it falls on the CRNA and physician to position the body safely and harmlessly—sometimes for many hours.

Anyone who’s taken a nap on a couch understands that if your positioning is off for too long, you can wake up with a sleepy arm or leg. In procedures, awkward positioning can cause more lasting nerve damage and even loss of motor function in some cases.

Dental Damage

One of the primary duties of many CRNAs is to intubate patients. Intubation involves inserting a tube into a patient’s throat to ensure an open airway for breathing throughout the operation.

CRNAs may do this procedure thousands of times over their career, which is often a mundane task—but there’s still possible damage to the patient. One of the most common malpractice claims against CRNAs revolves around dental damage during intubation, where the patient’s teeth were accidentally chipped, cracked, loosened, or even knocked out.

Insufficient Assessment & Evaluation

CRNAs are also often responsible for performing the anesthesia preassessment, evaluation, and obtaining the patient’s informed consent. During these duties, it’s not uncommon for mistakes to get made, like a part of the patient’s history gets missed or the patient feels they weren’t fully informed before the procedure.

It’s the patient’s right to have the procedure explained to them, along with who will be performing it and their qualifications. It’s also the patient’s right to ask that only an anesthesiologist perform specific duties instead of a CRNA. There have been malpractice claims where patients felt they weren’t duly informed of the procedure or that they could request an anesthesiologist to perform certain tasks—resulting in the CRNA getting targeted for omitting important information.

Documentation Errors

Paperwork is vital to the job of a CRNA and everyone working in the healthcare field. Unfortunately, insufficient documentation is a typical reason for mistakes and for patients to file malpractice suits against CRNAs and other personnel.

If a CRNA fails to sufficiently update a patient’s documentation—like a patient’s history, physician’s orders, or medication prescription—it can have dire consequences later. Without all information, anesthesiologists and other physicians might administer harmful medication to the patient or perform dangerous procedures, making the CRNA liable for not updating the documentation correctly.

Neglecting Observational Duties

Much of a CRNA’s job is monitoring patients before and after administering anesthesia. Often, this observation is only prudent, and the patient recuperates painlessly from the procedure and anesthesia.

But, as we mentioned, CRNAs are often responsible for monitoring multiple patients simultaneously, and some can fall through the cracks with dire consequences. Suppose a patient begins to experience complications from the surgery or anesthesia, but the CRNA fails to notify the physician or help the patient in time. In that case, it can lead to more severe health damage or even death. In those cases, an investigation could find the CRNA responsible as their duty was the observation of the patient.

Strategies for Decreasing Risk as a CRNA

What can CRNAs do to decrease these risks and errors on the job? CRNAs are only human, so mistakes are bound to happen, but there are ways to help avoid and mitigate these risks as much as possible.

Obtain Informed Consent

Informed consent is at the heart of many malpractice claims against CRNAs—patients feel they weren’t duly informed of the dangers or the qualifications of personnel performing them. So, informed consent is an essential part of the preassessment process for CRNAs.

Ensure that the patient fully understands the anesthesia plan and knows their rights as a patient before consenting.

Have Malpractice Insurance

As we’ve said, mistakes happen—but when they do, they don’t have to cost a CRNA their career or financial security. That’s why CRNA liability insurance is essential for every CRNA.

Without proper malpractice insurance, CRNAs can have their entire financial future and career turned upside down because of one mistake or perceived error.

Avoid Burnout

Burnout is among the most common problems for nurses in healthcare, even CRNAs. Medical professionals can experience burnout from working long hours under stressful conditions and an imbalanced personal and work life.

When CRNAs experience burnout, they’re more likely to make mistakes, so mental health and wellness are also essential for CRNAs. CRNAs should do their best to maintain a healthy personal life outside of work, get plenty of rest, or even seek mental health counseling if they think it could improve their mental state.

If you have any further questions about malpractice insurance, don’t hesitate to contact our expert staff at Baxter & Associates. We can help you get the protection you need.

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.

Insurance has so many terms and policies that it can be challenging to understand them all. That’s why we create these helpful guides to give regular people a clearer understanding of essential insurance terms and information.

In this guide, we’ll look closely at tail coverage, its benefits, and how important it can be to many professions, from physicians to lawyers. Keep reading to learn more!

What Is Tail Coverage?

Tail coverage is an addition to an insurance policy that protects a business or individual from liability or loss. After the policy expires or is canceled, the policyholders can opt for tail coverage, which acts as an extension of the policy.

Tail coverage is not a separate policy but more of a temporary extension—providing the same protection and coverage of the original policy for an extended period. It’s a temporary solution to a momentary loss of coverage and is ideal for people transitioning from one policy or insurance provider to another.

Types of Tail Coverage

Tail coverage can add to many different policies and industries. While it’s widespread for medical malpractice insurance, many other types of policies can incorporate tail coverage, including:

• Errors and omissions
• Employment practices liability
• Data breach insurance
• Management liability
• Professional liability

From small business owners to law firms and physicians, many professions and industries utilize tail coverage for insurance protection.

Tail Coverage & Claims-Made Policies

In many cases of professional liability insurance, policyholders have two choices: claims-made and occurrence-based policies. Tail coverage is only suitable for claims-made insurance policies.

A claims-made policy is insurance that covers the policyholder for claims reported while the policy is active. The incident or claim must occur after the active date of the coverage and before the expiration date. Tail coverage can extend this time frame even though the policy officially expires, so any claim or loss after the claims-made policy expires is still covered.

Do I Need Tail Coverage for Occurrence-Based Policies?

What about occurrence-based policies—do I need tail coverage for that? Occurrence-based policies are more comprehensive than claims-made as they protect the policyholder indefinitely for any claim or loss that occurs while the policy is active.

For instance, even if an individual’s occurrence-based policy expired three years ago but a claim arose for an incident five years ago—when the policy was active—the individual would be covered. Tail coverage isn’t paired with occurrence-based policies because it’s unnecessary—how long the policy is active is irrelevant because it covered any claims or incidents when it was active.

How Long Should Tail Coverage Last?

The length of tail coverage varies from individual to individual. For many, tail coverage is like gap insurance—temporarily providing coverage for a short period in an insurance transition phase.

For that reason, tail coverage can be as short as a few months or weeks. It’s not uncommon for tail coverage to last for years—mainly for retiring policyholders. Whatever the individual needs, there’s typically a tail coverage available that suits their requirements.

Is Tail Coverage Expensive?

How much should a person expect to pay for tail coverage? It’s difficult to speak generally about the price of tail coverage because every insurance provider and individual with different extenuating circumstances vary regarding the policy and cost.

Typically, tail coverage comes with a higher premium than the initial policy because it’s an add-on and temporary coverage. Most policyholders can expect tail coverage premiums to be between 100 and 300 percent of the original policy’s final premium. It’s more expensive, so most policyholders only use tail coverage for short periods.

Tail vs. Nose Coverage

You may also hear the term “nose” coverage in professional liability and other insurance policies—is that the same as tail coverage? No, nose coverage (also known as prior acts coverage) is like tail coverage in that it’s an addition to an original policy. Nose coverage applies to incidents when the policyholder was covered by a previously terminated policy from a different insurance provider.

Even if you’ve switched policies or insurance providers, nose coverage provides the same protection and benefits of the current policy retroactively to when a different provider insured you. Like tail coverage, it adds more protection to the individual, but it’s retroactive instead of the future.

Why You Need Tail Coverage

Why does someone need tail coverage with their insurance policy? There are many reasons to consider tail coverage, but the most common are individuals looking to fill a gap in coverage or professionals who have recently retired.

Gap Coverage

While it’s ideal for a professional in healthcare, law, or any other industry requiring professional liability insurance to have complete protection, gaps can occur. Some of the reasons there could be a gap in professional liability coverage include:

• An individual who is part of a group work policy decides to change jobs
• An individual in a group policy leaves for an individual policy
• An individual goes from one group policy to another
• A policyholder switches insurance providers
• There’s a gap between an expired claims-made policy and a new one

Whatever the reason, there are many instances where a gap between an old and new policy can occur. For many professionals in industries with liability insurance—like malpractice insurance for healthcare professionals—any gap in coverage risks their financial security and career.

No professional who can be hit with a malpractice lawsuit wants to leave anything to chance, even if it’s only for a few days. That’s why many professionals need tail coverage.

Retirement Coverage

Another common reason for tail coverage is to stay protected into retirement. Some retirees schedule their policies to end when they retire, but there’s still the risk of a loss or malpractice claim against individuals after they retire.

Tail coverage provides retirees with peace of mind and adequate protection should they face a loss or litigation after they’ve left their profession.

Now, you should know a bit more about tail coverage, its importance, and how it can benefit you. If you are switching insurance policies or providers or are near retirement, consider tail coverage to ensure you’re not vulnerable in a transition period of claims-made policies.

If you have further questions about tail coverage or any other professional liability or malpractice insurance matters, don’t hesitate to call the experts 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.

In insurance, there are many phrases and terms that get thrown around that may be confusing to people unfamiliar with the industry. To help, we’ve put together a brief guide on insurance premiums and what they’re for so you can be more informed while shopping for an insurance policy.

What Are Insurance Premiums?

You have probably heard the term “insurance premiums” get thrown around a lot—but what are they, and what are they for? In essence, insurance premiums are the amount the policy owner pays for their insurance, whether home, auto, life, or another policy.

Insurance premiums can be paid monthly, semi-annually, or annually but are most often a monthly payment. If, for example, you spend $200 a month for a policy, your yearly insurance premium would be $2,400.

What Determines an Insurance Premium?

So, an insurance premium is a term for how much you pay for the insurance policy, but what determines how high or low your premium is?

Type of Coverage

There are obviously many different types of insurance and coverage—some are inherently more expensive and have higher premiums than others. For example, a standard auto insurance policy will have different insurance premiums than a professional liability policy from a malpractice insurance agency.

Amount of Coverage

What the policy covers significantly influences the insurance premiums along with the coverage type. The more extensive and comprehensive the coverage for your policy, the more you’ll have to pay in insurance premiums.

Plus, the value of what you’re insuring affects the premiums. Insuring a $200,000 house will cost less in premiums than a $500,000 home.

Deductible Amount

A deductible is an amount the policyholder pays out-of-pocket toward a covered claim. For example, even if your professional liability policy covers a malpractice litigation claim, you’ll still be on the hook to pay the deductible.

Most policies offer a range of deductibles for a policy, and, typically, the higher you pay, the lower the insurance premiums you can get. It’s a trade-off between how expensive a one-time payment is versus a series of payments.

Personal Info & Background

Of course, your background and info will also greatly influence how high your insurance premiums are. The greater the insurance company determines the risk of insuring you or your property, the higher your premiums will be.

If, for instance, you’ve been in multiple car accidents in the past couple of years, your insurance premiums will be higher than someone with a spotless record.

Now you understand a little more about insurance policies and insurance premiums. If you’d like to learn more about insurance or malpractice insurance, don’t hesitate to contact the experts 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.