Australian health system is one of the key sectors that make Australia a strong country. Even though the Australian health system is safely established, there is always the possibility of human error and because of that patients are being harmed. Therefore, the Medical Indemnity Insurance plays a vital role within the health system providing both doctors and patients protection in the event of malpractice or incident during a medical care. It is mandatory for a doctor to hold a medical indemnity policy according to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Here is everything you need to know about this kind of insurance and whether you need to buy such a policy.
Medical Indemnity Insurance is created to provide cover in cases of malpractice in different medical professions such as doctors, nurses, chiropractors and osteopaths. Human errors might happen, even with the best experience and training in the world. Therefore, the medical professional liability insurance will guard you against the risk of legal action against you brought by a patient, client, customer or their agents as a result of the treatment you have provided for them and will take care of the legal costs involved in defending a case.
This type of insurance covers any incident that happens during the period of cover irrespective of when the claim is made. Usually, as a doctor, you are assessed by the insurance company on your own merits, your experience, qualifications and claims history. It is an individual insurance as you are not pooled with all the other members of your speciality and also, it is not determined by how your peers have performed.
Generally, the standard policy features are: protection of reputation which is coverage of legal costs if you wish to continue defending a claim; defence costs which provide additional protection with a reinstatement clause, public patients cover which automatically covers claims in practise speciality where hospital or area of health service doesn’t indemnify you and loss of income when attending court. Furthermore, the medical professional liability insurance provides no gaps when returning from maternity leave, privacy risks which cover fines from breaches of privacy laws, needle stick cover which provides automatic lump sum payment if the insured is diagnosed with a covered communicable disease requiring them to retire, retrain or revise your practice. And finally, a cover of practise activities which are the broad healthcare services to minimise gaps in insurance protection as well as 24-hour medico-legal assistance.
A very important note about the policy is that the medical indemnity is slightly unusual policy compared to the other insurance types because of the fact that claims don’t often surface until a while after an incident has occurred. Sometimes symptoms develop later so it may take longer for the cause to be established.
Reference: https://www.guardinsurance.com.au/professional-indemnity-insurance/medical-indemnity/
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