0:00

So how do you choose a, if you're in the position

0:03

to be choosing a medical malpractice

0:05

insurer, how do you make that choices?

0:07

Well, there are ratings by standard

0:09

and Poors by Best Company of Wick

0:11

that rate the various malpractice insurers.

0:15

And they are look at both the financial viability

0:19

of the company as well as their service records, et cetera.

0:22

So this is one place where you can look for, uh, ratings

0:26

of malpractice insurance

0:28

and they go from a triple plus to B plus.

0:31

Some of them are, um, that you get down into the Cs and Ds.

0:34

Probably not acceptable for us as physicians

0:36

because we want reliability.

0:39

Um, sometimes they're not rated,

0:40

which means that they're a new company.

0:42

You probably don't want a new company

0:44

that doesn't have established practice.

0:46

So these are part of it.

0:48

So how much do you pay for a medical malpractice premium?

0:52

That will depend in part on the state

0:56

and the caps that are placed on punitive damages and pain

1:00

and suffering, which vary from state to state.

1:02

It may also depend on

1:04

how many claims have been made against you

1:05

and how much you've had to pay out.

1:08

But most of the time the terms that are used are

1:12

1 million slash 5 million, which talks about

1:16

how much you pay, you're covered for a case,

1:21

and how many cases in total,

1:23

or the total amount that you're covered for that year.

1:27

So 1 million, 5 million means that you're, you're covered

1:30

for 1 million per case at a total of 5 million in that year.

1:34

So theoretically you could have five, $1 million cases.

1:38

Um, fortunately the insurance

1:41

companies often will be a little bit flexible in this,

1:44

um, determination.

1:46

Most people, for radiologists recommend having 1 million

1:52

coverage per case and 3 million total

1:56

for the year for radiologists.

1:58

This differs if you're an interventionalist where you are

2:02

recommended to have 1 million and 5 million just

2:05

because they may, the individuals may have complications

2:08

that may actually cost a lot more

2:10

or may, um, actually occur more frequently.

2:15

So, um, again, depending upon your state limits.

2:19

So you wanna look up the state of California

2:22

and see how much do they, is the limit for punitive

2:26

and how much for pain and suffering?

2:27

And you may want to increase your per case basis up

2:31

to 2 million and your total per for the year for

2:35

to 6 million depending upon how liberal

2:38

the states are about pain and suffering

2:40

and punitive damages.

2:42

So for example, these are some state caps

2:46

on things like non-economic damages, which is pain

2:50

and suffering and or punitive.

2:52

So, uh, Indiana total 1.25 million,

2:55

Massachusetts $500,000 non-economic

2:59

Damages. Now there's going

3:00

to be economic damages for loss of wages

3:04

and um, for the treatment costs, et cetera.

3:09

Um, Nebraska total 1.75.

3:12

So you could see that, you know, even from Indiana

3:14

to Nebraska or Virginia, there's a quite a large range.

3:19

And depending upon this large range, you may need to adjust

3:22

how much coverage you're getting per case.

3:25

And for the year, Oklahoma, 300,000 non-economic.

3:30

So those are some of the parameters by state.

3:35

On average. Nationally,

3:39

radiologists pay about 20,000 per year

3:43

for their malpractice insurance.

3:46

It is higher for interventionalists than it is

3:48

for diagnostic radiologists,

3:50

but those rates vary.

3:54

Also, state by state, look at this.

3:57

This is 2005 numbers,

3:59

but the rates for radiologists for medical malpractice

4:03

in Florida were $45,500 as opposed

4:08

to, for example, Nebraska,

4:10

they were only paying 8,000 a year

4:12

for their malpractice insurance.

4:14

So these vary quite widely, depending upon the states

4:18

and depending upon how litigious the citizen

4:21

population is in that state.

4:23

As far as bringing malpractice suits in academia,

4:27

generally we pay less than those, uh,

4:30

individuals in private practice.

4:34

How do we compare versus, um, other specialties?

4:39

So remember we had 20,000 for US internists, surgeons,

4:44

OBGYNs, different states.

4:46

You can see for example, in Michigan, look

4:48

how high OBGYN is.

4:50

$88,000 a year for the malpractice premium

4:55

for OBGYNs, which as you know,

4:57

they are the most commonly sued

4:59

and they have potential bad baby suits,

5:01

which are very expensive.

5:03

On average, all physicians, $49,530.

5:08

So we're about less than a half of that as radiologists

5:12

as the, you know, eighth

5:14

or seventh most common subspecialty to be sued.