The philosophy of malpractice insurance is a simple one: Set aside funds to cover any unforeseen incidents that may crop
up over the span of your practice. While you may acknowledge that liability protection is just another element to practicing
medicine, completely comprehending the labyrinth of requirements, regulations, and changing markets can be intimidating.
To help erase misconceptions and confusion, especially as it pertains to a locum tenens career, LocumLife tapped some of the staffing industry's leading experts on the topic. Here, they address the basic covenants of how malpractice
insurance works-from premiums, to extended coverage options and aggregates, to countless other details that go into creating
an effective insurance policy.
THE PARTICIPANTS
Mark Brouse
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Mark Brouse is president of VISTA Staffing Solutions, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has been with the company 17 of his 20 years
in the staffing industry. VISTA is the newly acquired physician staffing division of On Assignment, one of the largest healthcare
and scientific staffing companies in the U.S.
Susan Collier
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Susan Collier has been with Salt Lake City, Utah-based CHG Healthcare Services for nearly 21 years. Currently, her primary role focuses
on quality improvement, including securing accreditation, certification, and malpractice insurance policies.
Dustin Koger
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Dustin Koger has been with Staff Care, Inc., located in Irving, Texas, since its inception in 1991. As executive vice president, Mr. Koger
brings various experiences, from production to internal operations and risk management.
Gloria Parrish
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Gloria Parrish has worked in the healthcare industry for 15 years, most recently as vice president of marketing for Norcross, Georgia-based
Medical Doctor Associates. She has also assisted hospitals and physicians groups as an independent consultant.
David Roush
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David Roush serves as president and chief operating officer of http://LocumTenens.com/, located in Alpharetta, Georgia. Prior to joining the agency in 2000, he held numerous positions within the temporary staffing
industry, including sales, recruiter, and management.
Edmund Seibels, with McGriff, Seibels & Williams in Birmingham, Alabama, has been an insurance broker for more than 30 years.
What is the current malpractice landscape in the country? How has it changed ?
Dustin Koger (DK): When you look back to the late 1980s and the 1990s, insurance companies in many cases were more interested in their marketshares
than in pricing policies appropriately. Losses began to exceed the policy reserves and that forced companies to become more
financially responsible in how they priced their products. But that meant much higher premiums and the result was that we
saw physicians in high-risk specialties, like obstetrics/gynecology and surgery, have an even harder time finding affordable
malpractice insurance. That impacted the staffing industry as well.
David Roush (DR): Indeed, insurance companies were losing money, all of which resulted in rate increases of 30 to 40%. Then about 6 years ago,
a large insurance provider dropped out of the locum tenens malpractice marketplace and that hurt the industry.
