Vesting period tail coverage?

[m1lktea]

Hospitalist here. Looking to sign with a multi specialty group.

Contract states tail coverage has a vesting period of 6 years. In other words, if I leave for ANY reason before year 6, I would have to pay for my own tail coverage.

Deal breaker or no? My goal is to have them drop the waiting period. But if that is not possible, what is a reasonable number of years? All of my prior jobs have provided tail without any required duration of employment with them.

There is a small sign on bonus, should I use that as a bargaining chip (i.e. pay for my tail and don't pay me the sign on bonus)? I will be practicing in the northeast, 8 years post grad, no prior malpractice claims. Any ideas on how much tail coverage would cost for someone w/ that background.

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[collegestud2013]

Sounds unusual for a hospitalist job, especially if employed by a large health system. Not sure about exact cost will be but tail coverage is generally quite expensive and several times the annual rate; somewhere in the 5 figures if I had to guess. Some smaller private practices may not provide tail coverage or have some similar vesting period since it can be a hefty cost for a small practice to pay if there's high turnover, but larger hospitalist groups would be expected have a group wide malpractice insurance and and thus end up paying a bit less per physician. And 6 years is too long for a hospitalist job as the average hospitalist probably doesn't stay at the same place for that long; unless you already plan on staying at that job for 6+ years, it seems like another trap to make it harder to leave even if the job starts becoming undesirable (along with other stuff like noncompetes if there is one) If they refuse to take it out altogether, would try to see if they can reduce it to something more reasonable like 2 years, or at least change it to a prorated basis based on how many months of out the 6 years you stay, similar to how the repayment is structured for many sign on bonuses (eg if you stay for 3 years you pay half the tail). Otherwise would be very careful about signing and look at other options, especially if you're not geographically restricted.

 

[chessknt]

2 years max, dont give up the signing bonus unless you're willing to walk if they wont waive it. That is a huge dealbreaker, look at it as a 30-50k penalty for leaving.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

That’s a really long time to have tail coverage “vest”. Try to negotiate the time down, or make it pro rated.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

That’s a really long time to have tail coverage “vest”. Try to negotiate the time down, or make it pro rated.