What Is Medical Indemnity Insurance?

Medical indemnity is a field of insurance that is primarily related to malpractice or negligent behavior in various medical professions. It applies to mistakes, accidents, and other events where the claimant can prove that an incident has occurred because of negligence by a medical practitioner and can receive compensation as a result.

Even if a medical practitioner has been fully trained and possesses a wealth of experience in their field, mistakes and accidents can still occur. As our society becomes more litigious than ever, it’s essential for you, as a medical professional, to protect yourself against the risk of legal action being made against you. Even if the claim being made against you is false, the legal fees required to defend your case can still be extremely costly, and so it is essential to have a comprehensive medical indemnity insurance policy.

Medical indemnity insurance is different from other forms of insurance because claims usually occur a while after an incident actually happens. A claim could be made some time before a condition is exacerbated or symptoms develop, and it could take a significant amount of time for the cause to be determined.

The different types of medical indemnity

Claims based

Claims based indemnity only provides cover for events that occur during the insurance membership period or policy, as long as the claim is reported before the end of the period. Once the membership or policy has lapsed, new claims that were not reported during the membership period or policy will not be provided with cover. In order to be protected against any more claims that arose but were not reported during the membership or policy, run-off cover will be required.

Occurrence based

Occurrence based indemnity provides cover for events which occur during the membership period or policy, regardless of when the incident was reported.

Discretionary and contractual indemnity

Contractual indemnity is a contractual commitment to provide compensation for defined damage or loss by making a payment. Discretionary indemnity is where an insurance provider will offer financial and legal assistance at their own discretion.

If you’re a surgeon in the UK looking for comprehensive medical indemnity cover, get in touch with our team of professionals at Incision today by giving us a call on 0333 444 1515, dropping us an email on info@incisionindemnity.com or by filling in our online form. To learn more about medical indemnity insurance from Incision, information about our membership policies can be found on the website.


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