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Integro coverage offers healthcare institutions protection against medical malpractice claims administration risk


February 9, 2016   by Canadian Underwriter


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Integro Ltd. has introduced exclusive professional liability/errors & omissions insurance coverage to help protect healthcare institutions with self-insured professional liability programs from claims-handling exposures inherent in adjusting medical malpractice claims.

New professional liability/E&O insurance coverage for self-insured healthcare institutions

The coverage – underwritten by London-based Cove Program Underwriters – has limits of up to $5 million in the aggregate, notes a joint release Monday from Cove Program and Integro, a global insurance brokerage and risk management firm whose family of specialty insurance and reinsurance companies operate from offices in the United States, Bermuda, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The product offers protection for healthcare entities and its claim staff against claims alleging bad faith, deceptive claims practices and failure/negligence in providing professional services of claims handling, adjusting and underwriting.

Healthcare entities at risk, the joint statement notes, include those that are the following: self-insured to some degree for professional liability, regardless of the form of the self-insurance; self-administering its claims and/or underwriting program; acquisitive (since merging insurance programs may result in disjointed claims handling functions and philosophies and disparate limits); and providing coverage for non-employed or third-party physicians and clinicians.

“Such organizations may often be viewed by its insureds as a true insurance company rather than a self-insurance program and, therefore, are more susceptible to allegations of bad faith,” the statement notes.

Ruth Kilduff, leader of Integro’s Healthcare practice, reports the company has seen a proliferation of litigation activity against healthcare clients and their claims staff. “The precipitating factor quite often is that an individual defendant may not have sufficient limits available. Such a defendant may then bring a claim against the entity that handled the claim,” Kilduff explains.

The new product has been designed to address growing exposures faced by healthcare entities self-insuring, Scott Simmons of Cove Program Underwriters adds in the statement. “In a sector that continues to see mergers and acquisition activity, the heightened exposure faced by those with in-house claims and underwriting functions increases,” Simmons points out.


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