What Is the Overall Purpose of Liability Insurance?

The purpose of liability insurance is to protect the insured from any liability risk that is legally viable against the insured due to malpractice or negligence.

What two beliefs or assumptions cause some healthcare professionals to mistakenly think that they do not need personal liability insurance and why are these wrong?

Medical volunteering and the belief that the liability falls on the hospital and not specific healthcare professional are assumptions that have made health professionals think they do not need personal liability insurance. In this case, both medical volunteering and aggregate hospital liability insurance have limits that can result in individual healthcare personnel being sued. For instance, a hospital can sue a health professional for misconduct to maintain their reputation. On the other hand, the good Samaritan doctrine is only limited to only accidents and impromptu assumptions of duty to save a patient outside in the community set up and does not cover volunteering within a hospital and any negligence the healthcare personnel will be liable.

Is employers liability insurance sufficient to cover employees? Why or why not?

Employer liability insurance is not sufficient to cover the negligence of the employees. Employer liability insurance only covers the employers to compensate employees for any injury they may experience while on duty. In this case, it is important for healthcare employees to acquire personal liability insurance to protect themselves from any liability as a result of negligence or malpractice.

Employers attempt to protect themselves against claims of negligent acts of an employee or independent contractor fall under two theories of liability. Describe those two theories.

Direct negligence liability and respondeat superior doctrine this liability occurs due to the failure of a healthcare organization to conform to the standards of care which results in injuries to a patient. The respondeat superior doctrine theory argues that an organization is liable for any negligent acts of its employee in the course of employment.

Corporate negligence doctrine under this theory, an organization can be held liable for failing to provide adequate protection to a patient from harm by others.

Describe at least three situations that explain why healthcare workers should not depend upon employers liability insurance.

Negligence in private practice in private healthcare practice the hospital cannot extend its protection to healthcare professionals which is important for health professionals to have personal liability insurance.

Medical volunteer medical volunteer refers to any community healthcare assistance to the members of the community outside a healthcare organization control. In this case, negligence on the part of the healthcare professional will fall onto the healthcare professional individually and cannot be covered by the healthcare organization liability insurance hence; it is crucial for healthcare professionals to have personal liability insurance. c. Cases of a wrong decision or action that a patient can consider as negligence require healthcare personnel to have personal liability insurance.

Describe at least three features of private liability insurance policy

Provision of an attorney - a personal liability insurance policy provider provides an attorney to represent healthcare personnel who has been sued for negligence.

Professional negligence coverage the personal liability insurance provides cover against claims by a patient that one did not fulfill their healthcare obligations which can be considered as negligence.

Insured against costs personal liability insurance covers an individual against costs of damage, negligence compensation and court fees.

Describe the following types of Private Liability Policies.

a. Tail Coverage: Tail coverage refers to the extended period of reporting endorsement that is offered by a malpractice insurance carrier which allows a physician who has been insured to extend the coverage after the termination of claims made policy. The tail coverage premium varies with the carrier and ranges between 200% and 350% of the current malpractice premium.

b. Occurrence basis policy: the occurrence basis policy protects the insured from any incident that occurs within the policy period irrespective of the time that the claim is filed by the complainant.

c. Prior acts coverage: The prior acts coverage is an insurance policy that covers a physician for events before the date of the policy acquisition.

d. Umbrella policy: The umbrella policy refers to a liability policy that adds extra coverage to liabilities above another insurance policy. In this case, a hospital can use an umbrella policy to cover its physicians from any liability and also cover the organization from negligence and malpractice.