Medical Malpractice Insurance vs Professional Indemnity Insurance

No one seems to quite know whether they are getting a professional indemnity insurance policy or a medical mal-practice insurance policy when they are in a particular professional sector, such as if you were in the complementary therapist profession, which could be as wide ranging as a homeopath, aromatherapist, acupuncturist, beauty therapist, counsellor or hypnotherapist, if you wanted to buy your professional neglect protection would you search on Google under professional indemnity insurance or would you search under medical malpractice insurance? What you may ask is the difference? Fundamentally the ‘Policy’ provided under each title does the same i.e. it will defend an allegation where the professional is accused of professional neglect and should they subsequently be found guilty of professional neglect the policy should cover the policy holder for both legal costs and any damages awarded.
The problem comes where most professional indemnity insurance policies have a ‘Bodily Injury’ exclusion within the wordings whereas the medical malpractice policy does not.  It is strange that even for leading professions such as midwives, first aiders and paramedics you can still often see the titles under insurance services linked to professional indemnity and not medical-mal practice insurance.  So often trying to explain this to a client can be very confusing.

One Of The Largest Professional Indemnity Insurance Claims

News of a very substantial P.I. claim has hit the insurance market. Standard Life is taking a number of insurers, a massive job in itself. One hates to begin to think what the legal costs could be, let alone the £100m that Standard Life is saying should have covered the cost that the provider was forced to put into the Standard Life Pension Sterling Fund, when the credit crunch was at its height.

Apparently Standard Life is to pursue this claim through the London Commercial Court, against the professional indemnity insurers. The scene is set for a very interesting battle with one giant life insurance & pension providing company, against the general insurance providers of professional indemnity insurance which we could assume would be a joint action by Standard Life against those insurers. At present there is no indication of which of the professional indemnity insurers held the primary layers of the P.I. policy, and what exposures each of the excess layer providers would be liable for, in the event that the court finds in favour of Standard Life. If of course the court do find in favour of Standard Life as apposed to the professional indemnity insurance companies this may well set a precedent for future claims and therefore a possible re-write of the underwriting manual where 'Pension Funds' are involved.

It may also affect P.I. premiums for any business operating in the financial sectors. Naturally at this stage who knows what the outcome of such a claim could be, but either way it seems that the legal profession are in for a 'Bonus' income and with various law companies for each insurer having to perhaps confer with each other in the representations and defence.

This will be one of the most interesting claims in the insurance world to follow. You cannot even begin to try and predict the outcome between those various insurers and their legal representatives. It of course would be very interesting to know which solicitors were going to be in action pursuing and defending this professional indemnity insurance claim. Given the size of the claim and the insurance companies involved we could expect some very large law firms to be representing the various parties, and maybe a great court battle.

It would be a good day out when 'Summing Up'

Medical Mal-Practice Insurance

Medical MalPractice insurance has become an area where protection has become very important to the various growing professions.

Apart from the obvious areas such as doctors, nurses, dentists etc, there are many classes that are less well known, for example - nutritionists, complementary therapists, paramedics, first aiders, acupuncturists, masseurs and reflexologists and who all will need Professional Indemnity insurance / Medical Indemnity type insurance policies to protect them against possible legal claims, law suits and damages awarded to them in the event of their neglect when treating a client, which most Professional Indemnity or Medical Indemnity would respond to. The demand because of the new professions has never been higher.