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Doctors and physician assistants are the victims of numerous malpractice lawsuits each year. Unforunately, the physician assistant does not have to error in order to be named in the lawsuit. Just about anything can occur in the medical field. Just one trivial lawsuit against a physician assistant can totally destroy his personal finances and career. This is the case if he does not have medical professional liability insurance.

One of the quickest rising medical professions in America is that of the professional physician assistant. In addition, the responsibilities of the average physician assistant are increasing because numerous states are trying to find ways to reduce the healthcare expenses. When this is taken into consideration, it is a certainty that physician assistant malpractice lawsuits will most definitely go up. The American Academy of Physician Assistants predicts that the number of professional physician assistants in the United States will increase to 141,000 by the year 2020. There is no doubt that all practicing physician assistants are at an increased risk of being named in malpractice suits.

Although a physician assistant might be on the company’s insurance policy, he or she can still be held liable for medical malpractice.

Even though a physician assistant is a dependent healthcare practitioner, he is always at risk of individual liability. According to the law, every healthcare professional is responsible for his own actions.

Many PAs figure that they are safe if they are covered under their employer’s insurance program. This is completely false. When they are put on an employer’s insurance policy, they are not insured for the full one hundred percent coverage. They can still have a lawsuit filed against them if they did something wrong. They could possibly be held responsible for giving the plaintiff the full amount or a part of what the plaintiff wants.

All hospitals understand will get medical insurance that will cover its healthcare staff. But, it does not cover them at 100 percent. Physician assistants have to get personal malpractice insurance on their own or via a group. They must also carefully choose their liability limits.

There are two types of malpractice insurance – “occurrence” and “claims-made.” Occurrence insurance covers malpractice incidents that happen during the policy’s period. Even if the incident is reported much later, it will be admitted so long as the incident happened when the policy was in force. However, this form of insurance has become rare because of the uncertainties surrounding malpractice suits. The second type of insurance known as claims made has become more popular these days.

With claims made insurance policies, the malpractice incident has to happen and be reported during the time period that the insurance is in effect. If the policy is terminated and the incident goes unreported, the company will not provide any insurance cover. If a physician assistant wants to make sure that claims can be reported after the insurance policy expirs, then they have to get an additional insurance policy. A physician assistant can get the type of insurance policy called prior acts insurance that will provide coverage for malpractice incidents that have happened, but they still have not brought to the insurance company’s attention yet.

Physician assistants must choose a malpractice policy based on their duties and responsibilities, practice location and risk levels. These responsibilities are grouped into three different levels or Class A, B, or C.

Class A physician assistants have to help find solutions for patient problems.

Class B physician assistants are allowed to help with simple surgeries, prenatal and postnal procedures, 10 hours a week worth of trauma incidences and anethesiology.

Class C physician assistants are those who assist in orthopedic/OB/GYN/cardiovascular/neuro/thoracic/plastic surgeries. They also help with obstetrics (delivery room), trauma/emergency procedures (more than 10 hours per week) or cardiac catheterization.

If they participate in risky surgeries that are cardiovascular in nature, then they should consider getting more insurance that has more coverage. If their job responsibilities are minor in nature, then these physician assistants won’t have to have that high of an insurance limit. However, there is a noticeable increase in the state’s medical malpractice lawsuits, then the physician assistant should opt for a much higher insurance limit.

By buying medical malpractice insurance, a physician assistant can help to safeguard both his healthcare career and this financial future. Even if he is on his employer’s insurance policy, a physician assistant should also get his own coverage just to make sure that no risk is involved.