Ironhealth hybrid liability product

The distinct risk management challenges of integrating physicians into a hospital’s employee base are targeted by a new hybrid medical professional liability product that aims to give both hospitals and physicians insurance cover specifically tailored to their needs.

The product is the result of a partnership between IronHealth, the specialty healthcare unit of Ironshore, and Medical Mutual Insurance Company of North Carolina (MMIC). It is the first of its kind to combine hospital professional liability and physician professional liability in one policy, with separate and distinct coverage features and limits for the hospital and its employed physicians.

“Nowhere in the market is there a single product by a single carrier that provides coverage separately and distinctly for the two groups – the hospital and the employed physicians. But that’s what we’re doing through our partnership with MMIC,” said Josh Stein, chief underwriting officer of IronHealth.

The product, which is being marketed to North Carolina facilities on a “pilot” basis, is designed to be attractive both to hospitals – which typically want to resolve claims speedily and with as little expense as possible – and to their employed physicians who want not only financial protection but also defence of their reputations.

“More often than not, doctors want to zealously defend claims. They worry about their reputations, and they believe in the quality of their practice of medicine,” said Stein. “One of the problems that a hospital has when looking to hire physicians is overcoming the physicians’ concern that, if and when a medical malpractice claim comes in, the hospital will put its interests ahead of the physicians’ interests. Our product addresses that concern.”

With this in mind, the new product may help attract physicians to work for hospitals, he said.

“Hospitals can now tell doctors that they will be insured by a carrier who understands and respects their interests, will allow them to continue to have the risk management services they used to have in private practice, and that is going to continue to handle their claims in a way that protects their reputations and satisfies their desire to be protected.”