My First Contract -- Malpractice Insurance info

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runner123

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I am in the process of finishing up my residency. I recently received a contract from a private company. In the contract, it says I will have malpractice insurance and tail coverage. Is that enough or do you recommend that the coverage (dollar out) is spell out in the contract? Is disability usually also in the contract? Any recommendations on physician contract lawyer? I have looked up several and the cheapest I found is 750. The others are 1500-2000.

Thank you.

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You may find a 1-2 page sheet some times that lists all the benefits. If you don't have a sheet or PDF listed benefits, there may not be any. Your large health system jobs typically have 403(b), LTD, STD, life insurnance. However, the Life insurance or even LTD may be low in dollar value that you need to supplement with an outside agency.

If they don't tell you they offer liability insurance, you must provide your own. Typical is 1million/3million for coverage. Out of pocket costs depending on if you get occurence based or claims made, or even full time versus part time will impact if its ~$1500-5300. Some states have other random rules that impact insurance coverage and what's needed and how that trickles down to costs.

Most health system employers are 'self insured'. Meaning they put all their premiums into a giant bucket and created their own insurance company that will pay out if any judgements/settlements. You will want to know if in your contract they say it is a claims made or occurence policy. Or if its one that flips once you have worked for them for X amount of years. Either way its good to know how much the cost to buy their tail insurance is if its required in the contract. Get an estimate from them of what that would look like.

You don't necessarily need a physician lawyer, but a business/contract lawyer who happens to have seen a few contracts over the years can work well too. Lawyers will charge what they can, don't be afraid to shop around, or look for the smaller group in the suburbs instead of the metro high rise group.
 
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