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| Moonlighting- Am I Covered by my Malpractice Insurance? - Liability Insurance for Physican Assistants |
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by Bob Blumm, MA, PA-C, DFAAPA - June 30, 2010
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I have had the dubious honor of being a PA for the last four decades. One year after my employment with my SP of 38 years, I decided that it would be nice to make additional income by working within my scope of practice but in a different practice setting.
The PA credential has with it a great visa, as we are permitted to have cross mobility and to practice in every arena of medicine. There were so many opportunities open to me at the time and I decided that surgery had been my entrance into the profession and I had great military experience in all of the subspecialties, so why not moonlight as a surgical PA in general and vascular surgery? My supervising physician and I were friendly with the chief of anesthesia at one of our hospitals. This anesthesiologist happened to be on the BOD and was an owner in a malpractice insurance company. After a short discussion, he managed to convince me that moonlighting may have bright aspects in terms of making additional money, but also requires the responsibility of carrying malpractice insurance. Starting in 1972, I carried personal professional liability insurance to protect my assets, to give and maintain security for my family and, lastly, because every institution was prepared to give me malpractice insurance for a price, not free, as I was not an FT or PT employee. There were obvious limitations to their policy and I would have been covered for the work I did in the operating room but that was my limit and, when leaving, I would be responsible for a tail. The only thing that I was aware of concerning tails was that they usually were attached to animals.
Throughout the years, I have always advocated for PAs to carry their own personal coverage because I have seen numerous individuals become victim of the tort system who had been embroiled in a litigation only to discover that they were not covered under the wording of their contract or because they assumed that malpractice coverage in an institution would cover them for services that they performed when not working for their employer group, hospital or supervising physician. As a PA leader in a plethora of organizations, I convinced many boards to find a great company and to negotiate an opportunity for our membership to purchase personal professional liability insurance from their company. This became a perk of membership, as our members would now have additional security as well as an opportunity to raise the bar on their overall earnings. I have served as an unofficial sounding board and advisor for scores of PAs who were faced with an opportunity to branch out and were concerned about their legal position as a provider. To this day, I receive e-mails requesting advice on when, why, where to purchase a policy, I told them who needed it and how to go about the process.
In the past few weeks, I have seen postings on Clinician1.com where PAs were requesting info on liability insurance for moonlighting. One of the responses came from Dave Mittman, PA who said, “Try CM&F; they are good and have part time policies. They will answer your questions also.” To Dave’s comment, I add my own: “I spoke to the VP of new contracts at CM&F. All of the surgical groups have chosen this carrier because of its strong response and support of this profession. I advised then to contact Donna Fogelstrom who sells a policy for moonlighters who work less than five hundred hours yearly and covering five different limits.”
My responses were very much like these two: “You guys are a great resource. Thanks.” “Sorry I am sending this so late, but thanks sooooo much for the info.” Are you thinking of branching out and discovering a new source of income and a possible new specialty in which to learn and become expert at? If so, follow my advice and contact (dfogelstrom@cmfgroup.com). You’ll be glad that you did!
Robert M. Blumm has received national recognition as a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). He is the past president of the Association of Plastic Surgery Physician Assistants, and was past-president of the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants, past president of the American College of Clinicians and NYSSPA, as well as Chairman of the Surgical Congress of the AAPA. In addition, Bob received the John Kirklin MD Award for Professional Excellence from the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants. Along with his associate, Dr. Acker, Bob was the first recipient of the AAPA PAragon Physician-PA Partnership Award. He has been a contributing author of three textbooks, written 150 plus articles and is a sought out conference speaker throughout the United States.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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