The Benefits and Limitations of Indemnity Insurance

If you are a surgeon, then it is vital that you find out more about medical indemnity insurance. Even the best surgeons in the world who spend every day delivering great healthcare can get it wrong and this includes even those with the world’s finest medical training. Mistakes can have serious financial consequences for a patient, which also means financial consequences for the operating surgeon too. This is why it is incredibly important for you to have the appropriate insurance to compensate a patient. If you are a surgeon and want to know more about indemnity insurance, make sure to carry on reading for all the information that you need to know about the benefits of it and also what some of the limitations are.

What Are the Benefits of Indemnity Insurance?

As you can probably already see, there are many benefits that come along with having indemnity insurance. There are a number of cases in which it will cover you should a claim be made against you by a patient.

If you find yourself to be in a position where there is negligence or breach of contract on your part, then this is where indemnity insurance can step in to help. It will also cover you in cases where there has been unintentional infringement of intellectual property rights that causes suffering and damage to one of your patients. Another great benefit that is important to highlight with indemnity insurance is that it will cover you against any sort of liable or slander, which as most surgeons will know, your reputation is everything and slander can be very damaging to your career. Indemnity insurance will also cover you in cases where you have lost the data that a client has provided you. Finally, the last big benefit to having indemnity insurance is that if any of your employees are found guilty of misappropriation of a client’s money then you will be covered.

What are the Limitations of Indemnity Insurance?

As is the case with any type of insurance, there can be some limitations to them that you should be aware of before you sign up. Of course, all indemnity insurance providers are different, so make sure that you read the fine print and know exactly what the limitations are of each one. The main limitations that come from indemnity insurance include not being offered coverage against claims that are above an agreed amount, compensation demands that come after the policy tenure if it has not been renewed and there are also sometimes specific vetoed activities that they will not cover. Furthermore, it won’t protect you from pollution and environmental claims, plus some, but not all, will not cover you for any work that is undertaken overseas. What’s more, with this type of insurance you have to take it out for specific periods and cannot take it out for life.

What Can Happen to Those with No Indemnity Insurance?

While there are some limitations that come with indemnity insurance, the pros definitely far outweigh the cons and any surgeon should have this to protect them as the consequences are too high if something were to go wrong and you do not have it. One of the biggest consequences that you may find happens is that you lose your surgeon’s license. There is regulatory power checks in place which will check if a surgeon has adequate insurance and can penalise them where they feel it is necessary. Furthermore, you could potentially lose your privileges at an independent hospital or you may even be held personally liable to pay the patient compensation.