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FAQ'S
What is the difference between Legal Expense Insurance and Medical Malpractice Insurance?
The primary difference between the two insurance policies is that legal expense insurance does not provide for payment of any judgment, fine, award or any other monetary relief associated with the settlement or adjudication of a medical malpractice claim.
Consequently, legal defense insurance is substantially less expensive than malpractice insurance .
If you have dropped your commercial malpractice insurance policy, you should purchase a legal expense policy for medical malpractice. If you have hospital privileges but do not perform surgery of any type, you should purchase a legal expense insurance policy.
Many hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers are lifting their requirement that privileged physicians carry commercial malpractice insurance. In this situation, you should carry a legal expense policy to provide coverage for the legal expenses while also make sure you are meeting the requirements of financial responsibility for physicians under Florida law.
Legal expense insurance is the perfect solution to rising malpractice premiums. However, if you still need the security of malpractice liability insurance, it only makes sense to keep your existing policy in force.
FHPLEI understands the financial plight of physicians – declining reimbursements from third party payors, slow pay from self-paying patients and increased operational costs. Frankly, when you factor in these costs and expenses the practice of medicine is not as profitable as it was years ago.
For that reason alone, we believe you should be given the opportunity to choose the limits of your legal expense policy. You should not be forced to spend premium dollars for unnecessary coverage, especially if you do not have any previous claims or are a minimal risk for claims
FHPLEI has developed four premium/coverage levels: $25,000; $50,000; $75,000 or $100,000 levels. You decide what is best for you and what you can afford.
FHPLEI’s policy is a “claims-made” policy – the policy must be current and in force at the time of the triggering event. Once notification is received of a pending action or there is reason to believe a claim may be filed against you or your medical license, you will notify FHPLEI (within three business days).
Once we receive notice of the complaint, we will promptly review the complaint (or notice to litigate) to determine if the claim will be covered. Once approved, the case is assigned to an attorney who will contact you to discuss the defense of your case.
The good news is that you and the attorney manage the case. You and the attorney decide how to proceed with the case and make all decisions concerning any possible settlements. There is no interference from FHPLEI in the defense of the case .
FHPLEI has contracted with experienced and knowledgeable attorneys to handle malpractice and broad-form legal defense claims on your behalf. Special fee arrangements with these attorneys have been made to allow for greater policy benefits. FHPLEI will pay legal-related fees and expenses to the limits of the policy .
At no additional cost to the policyholder, FHPLEI provides a $10,000 broad-form legal expense endorsement to the policy. This benefit covers investigations for HIPAA violations, investigations against a doctor’s professional license, Medicare and Medicaid post payment audits and OSHA citations.
Yes, FHPLEI’s prior acts coverage can be purchased with our legal expense policy. This is a more affordable option than tail coverage from your current malpractice carrier.
Many doctors simply cannot afford tail coverage from their current carrier. FHPLEI will provide up to four years of prior acts coverage. Prior acts coverage will not pay for the defense of any known claims or bad outcomes.
It is imperative that you report possible claims to your current carrier prior to dropping coverage .