There are large amounts of malpractice lawsuits filed against doctors and physician assistant on a yearly basis. It is also not necessary that the physician assistant makes a mistake to become liable. Almost anything can happen when it comes to the medical world. All it takes is one simple and inconsequential lawsuit to put an end to a physician assistant's career and possibly make him bankrupt. This is what will happen if medical professional liability insurance is not purchased.
Out of all of the professions in the United States, the physician assistant profession is one that is developing the most rapidly. Moreover, many states are giving more duties and responsibilities to physician assistants because they'd like to keep the healthcare costs down. Given this scenario, it is absolutely certain that medical malpractice suits against physician assistants will continue to rise. The AAPA calculates that the amount of physician assistants working in America will be 141,000 around the time of 2020. It is obvious that all of these working physician assistants can be sued for malpractice.
Although a physician assistant might be on the company's insurance policy, he or she can still be held liable for medical malpractice.
Although physician assistants are not considered to be independent healthcare providers, they can still be held personally liable. In the eyes of the law, each medial worker can be held liable for what he does.
A lot of physician assistants think that they are okay if they are on their company's insurance policy. This is completely false. When they are put on an employer's insurance policy, they are not insured for the full one hundred percent coverage. They can still be held individually liable for their own negligence. They may have to pay the full or part of a plaintiff's settlement.
All hospitals understand will get medical insurance that will cover its healthcare staff. But, this is not enough insurance. Physician assistants must buy their own malpractice insurance individually or under a group plan from a commercial insurance company. They must also carefully choose their liability limits.
There are 2 sorts of insurance and they are based upon either the occurrence or the claims made. The type of insurance where the incidents happen while the insurance is still in force is called occurrence insurance. Even if the incident is reported much later, it will be admitted so long as the incident happened when the policy was in force. However, this type of insurance is not so common anymore because of the many unknown factors that are connected to malpractice insurance lawsuits. The second type of insurance known as claims made has become more popular these days.
With claims made insurance policies, the malpractice incident has to happen and be reported during the time period that the insurance is in effect. The claim will be disallowed if it is not reported before the insurance expires. Physician assistants who want coverage for claims that are reported after policy termination must buy another policy, which is called Extended Reporting Endorsement. A physician assistant can get the type of insurance policy called prior acts insurance that will provide coverage for malpractice incidents that have happened, but they still have not brought to the insurance company's attention yet.
Physician assistants have to pick the right malpractice policy that according to their job description, where they practice and the level of risk that is associated with their particular job. These responsibilities are grouped into three different levels or Class A, B, or C.
Class A physician assistants are those who assist in the diagnostic management of patients.
Class B physician assistants are those who assist in general surgeries, obstetrics (prenatal or postnatal care), trauma/emergency procedures (up to 10 hours per week), and anesthesiology.
Class C physician assistants are able to participate in plastic, neuro, thoracic, OB/GYN, orthopaedic and cardiovascular surgeries. Also, they are responsible for helping out with over ten hours weekly in trauma situations, cardiac catheterization and obstetric delivery room procedures.
Physician assistants should purchase the right about of insurance coverage if they help with risky procedures such as cardiovascular surgery. If their job responsibilities are minor in nature, then these physician assistants won't have to have that high of an insurance limit. However, there is a noticeable increase in the state's medical malpractice lawsuits, then the physician assistant should opt for a much higher insurance limit.
By buying medical malpractice insurance, a physician assistant can help to safeguard both his healthcare career and this financial future. Even if he is on his employer's insurance policy, a physician assistant should also get his own coverage just to make sure that no risk is involved.
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