Understanding Malpractice Policy Types - YouTube

Dentistry’s changed.

It’s evolving and dentist today I think are more mobile than they’ve ever been.

So something, I don’t’ know that a lot of dentist think about, is the impact of that.

When it comes to malpractice insurance, what do I need to think about with that in mind?

They need to consider how their insurance is supporting them along that journey, and

so one of the first things we want dentists to know is their policy coverage, the type

of coverage that they’re getting, and how that could impact their journey.

Alright so you’re talking about coverage types.

What types are they?

Are they the same?

Is one better than the other?

So, the two types of coverage that dentists should have a choice between is occurrence

and claims-made, and I say should because not all carriers will offer both, so it’s

really important that the first thing dentists do is find a carrier that’s offering them options.

And then they need to start understanding the difference between the two.

So in simplest of terms, occurrence, the way it works is it responds to a claim based on

the date treatment occurred regardless of the date the patient names them in a claim.

Claims-made, it’s the opposite, so it will respond based on the date the claim is made

regardless of the date you treated the patient.

So that sounds like an insurance technicality, what’s that really mean?

So, both policy types are great.

It really depends on your situation which one might work best for you, but generally

we do recommend occurrence over claims-made.

Occurrence coverage provides a lot more flexibility to dentists, especially if they’re moving

around, and why that is, is you can cancel and restart an occurrence policy whenever

you want and there’s no extra fees or penalty to do so, and the coverage you purchased stays in place.

Okay, so if I have occurrence I’m in pretty good shape moving forward.

What if I have claims-made and I stop, can I still get sued by a patient from the past?

Correct, so even though your policy stops, your risk of being sued doesn’t.

So that’s why if you have a claims-made policy, you need to make sure you get what’s

called tail coverage put in place, and it basically covers your tail going forward if

you were to see a lawsuit.

Got you, so what you’re saying is I’ve paid for my policy, I’ve stopped my policy,

now I have to add money even though I may have a new insurance moving forward.

Correct, and this is exactly what we want dentists to understand when choosing a policy

that if you want to go with a claims-made you should know about tail coverage, because

it’s a big expense that they might have to pay down the road.

Recently, we’ve had a new dentist who was in practice for um about a year, 12 months

outside of school, and then they were furloughed and eventually laid off from the group.

They had a claims-made policy which was then cancelled, so now not only do they have no

income, no job, they have an extra expense that they now have to pay for tail coverage

to make sure they’re protected.

Alright, so I thought tail coverage was free.

Yeah, so this is a misconception we hear a lot from dentists and most carriers that offer

claims-made coverage will advertise that you get free tail coverage when you cancel that policy.

However, you really have to read the fine print, because most often its only upon death,

disability, or complete retirement.

So, in the example with the furloughed dentist.

They may have thought they got coverage for free, but because it wasn’t for one of those

three reasons they had to pay for that tail.

Ok, so we kind of started with dentist changing and people are more mobile.

Is this something a new dentist really needs to consider themself with?

Absolutely.

And this goes right back to occurrence-occurrence-occurrence.

Picking that policy is going to help them focus on their career and any changes they

need to make during their first few years or throughout their entire thirty years of practice.

Occurrence gives them the certainty and flexibility they need to stay focused on dentistry.

Got it, so it sounds like to me if I’m a dentist I really need to understand the policy

types that are out there.

Emily, thanks so much.

That was great