Doctors' liability insurance

Voluntary liability insurance for medical professionals

Doctors' liability insurance

Doctors' liability insurance is a relatively new type of insurance for Kazakhstan; nevertheless, it is gaining considerable popularity. Patients' demands are becoming ever more serious, and medical care is often subjective in nature, i.e. diagnosis and treatment rely on the individual or collective opinion of doctors, which can lead to medical error. Doctors' professional liability insurance addresses compensation for precisely the material harm caused to a patient as a result of erroneous actions by a doctor or a medical institution. Voluntary professional liability insurance for medical professionals should not be confused with insurance of other types of professional liability, health insurance, liability insurance and other types, let alone with motor insurance. Below: to whom we recommend concluding a doctors' professional liability insurance contract, why such a contract is needed, when it should be concluded and on what terms.

Why doctors' liability insurance is needed

Professional liability insurance for medical professionals or doctors is needed primarily to prevent unforeseen losses associated with medical error:

• in making a diagnosis
• in prescribing treatment

that has resulted in harm to the health of the patient/client. Alongside this obvious reason for insuring medical staff, there are less obvious but significant ones for the clinic:

• the clinic's image improves
• the patient is confident that if a court rules in favour of compensation, it is guaranteed to be paid
• if the clinic is at fault, it will not conceal this but, on the contrary, will report it promptly, since this does not entail losses for the clinic

Who concludes a professional liability insurance contract for medical professionals

Doctors' professional liability insurance is purchased by both private clinics and clinics operating under the right of economic management (state enterprises)

Doctors' professional liability insurance contract

The contract is concluded based on and in accordance with the Insurance Rules and the Civil Code. The procedure for concluding the contract is as follows: Application for insurance; Underwriting by the insurance company; Agreement on rates and contract terms; Signing of the contract and payment

How much does a professional liability insurance contract for medical professionals cost

The cost of the contract is determined on the basis of the following factors:

• insured event statistics
• doctors' qualifications
• the medical institution's total length of operation

The calculation and price of liability insurance for medical professionals are so individual that no insurance company will quote an exact price without detailed underwriting of the insured risk.

What specialists believe needs to be done

Specialists believe that harm to health is not always caused by negligence or poor-quality care, so it is especially important to:

• introduce a system for qualified and objective assessment of complex cases that have led to complications or death
• establish an institution of mutual insurance and professional liability of medical professionals, based on well-known international practice and the concept of a mutual insurance society, which would unite medical professionals themselves and medical organisations to share the risk jointly
• develop effective mechanisms for the shared responsibility of citizens themselves for protecting their own health

To calculate and place liability insurance for medical professionals, contact the insurance brokers and agents listed in the Association's registry.