Robert Chavez, MD
President, IEPC
Providence Little Company
of Mary Medical Center Torrance

Hello friends and colleagues,

Why don’t we take a moment to talk about a topic near and dear to all independent emergency physicians and their groups… Insurance. There are, of course, many types of insurance, but I’m going to mention a few we are all aware of and some of you may or may not have thought of or considered for your group.

As independent emergency physicians, we interact with medical insurance all day, every day. We ensure our families and for our livelihoods, we interact with various insurance companies and products daily.

Then there is medical malpractice insurance. This type of insurance is essential for the practice of emergency medicine. Emergency physicians work with high-risk patients in a chaotic environment with multiple stakeholders vying for our attention all while task switching constantly. In medical malpractice attorney parlance… “Shangri La.” An independent group should have a minimum of $1,000,000 (per case)/$3,00,000 (per annual aggregate) claims made malpractice insurance coverage.
If your group is set up as a corporation with corporate executives, these insurance types are important as well. Business and Management (BAM) Indemnity Insurance is a type of insurance that protects companies and their executives from lawsuits and claims related to mismanagement or negligence during business. It covers risks like breach of fiduciary duty, harassment, and other management-related issues. D&O insurance covers an accused company executive in employee lawsuits while EPLI covers the whole company in the event of a lawsuit alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, failure to promote, wrongful termination, invasion of privacy and other employment related misconduct.

Cyber insurance is also critical in this stage of EHRs, group web pages, digital transfer of HIPAA protected medical records and electronic revenue cycle management interfacing with government and private insurance computer systems. Do you think this insurance is not important? Imaging a hack compromising all your group’s physician information on your security protected website. Moreover, see how difficult it is to bill when your hospital or RCM company is hacked or hit with ransomware, and your group is unable to bill for 2-3 months. When doing your due diligence, be sure to ask if the Cyber insurance covers third party intrusions.