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Commonly asked questions about medical liability insurance

Q: Recently, I read that occurrence coverage is no longer the predominate form of medical malpractice insurance coverage. What other types of coverage are available and how do they differ from occurrence coverage?

A: Occurrence coverage is so named because whenever a medical liability episode or occurrence happens - regardless of when you received notification from the patient or when a suit was filed - the policy you had in place when the occurrence took place will be the policy that will cover you. In essence, an occurrence type policy, has an automatically built-in tail (described below), which has no time limit. The exposure for the liability carrier is unlimited in time, and the cost for such insurance is significantly more than those policies with a time-limited exposure.