Finally got malpractice insurance.

Nurses General Nursing

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I have hemmed and hawed for years, and with each passing year in practice, gotten more and more anxious about NOT having . I had always been told "nurses who carry personal insurance are sued first," but then I had also been told that the hospital will only cover you if you followed hospital policy down to the exact letter (and we all know human error is a real thing) and will throw you under the bus the first chance they get.

I have watched coworkers go through awful lawsuits, and have had experiences at work that increasingly leave me praying at the bedside that everything turns out okay and that I don't end up in court. My line of work is just plain scary sometimes (OB). Patients are getting sicker, and pregnancies are getting more and more high risk with more and more co-morbidities that make for sometimes frightening situations at the bedside.

I have been reading through threads on this site for a few weeks trying to decide, and I finally decided that enough is enough, and that my peace of mind is worth $109 a year. I feel like a weight has been lifted. I just had to share.

Because there's inherently more risk in getting in an accident. No need to fish - we know the answer. By the same token you have a greater risk of getting in a car wreck than you do a plane crash, which is why travel insurance that pays out in the event you die at 38K feet is super cheap as well. That's neither rocket science nor a secret.

Maybe in the military it's different, but I think Risk Manager covered in detail about the possibility of the "employer washing their hands of you."

What I was trying to point out to some, and maybe did it poorly, is how much insurance they would have to sell to make a profit.

Even if EVERY active RN bought a policy, that's only $300,000,000 per year coming in. Take away overhead, it seems they don't have very much to pay out and still be profitable. That tells me they aren't paying out much.

One thing I think you will agree with me on...we wish we were the ones who thought to sell to nurses!

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Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.
Maybe you should start a thread to see if you can get the anecdotal evidence you are seeking. I will still carry my own insurance either way but I'd be interested to see what kind of responses you'd get.

My professional training and my anecdotal experience of 34 years in medmal risk/claims management and hundreds of malpractice claims indicates that the number of nurses using the 'license defense' aspect of their personal policy greatly outnumbers the number of nurses using the 'malpractice defense' aspect of their policy. This is especially true in states in which the BON files large numbers of actual charges against nursing licenses, not just investigations. Recall that CNA only provides the 'licensure defense' legal reimbursement if the BON files actual charges against your license. Investigations do not qualify for reimbursement under the policy.

In all the scores of hospital nursing medmal claims I have handled, not a single one of my nursing employees has ever had their coverage triggered under their personal policy. The only claims I have handled in which a personal policy has been triggered have been for non-employed nurses, such as travelers or independent contractors. In those cases, since they are not my employees, my hospital insurance does not cover them, and their personal policy becomes the primary, not excess, coverage.

And I should point out that RiskManager is a he. I have just checked, and the shuttle is indeed in the hangar.

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Maybe in the military it's different, but I think Risk Manager covered in detail about the possibility of the "employer washing their hands of you."

What I was trying to point out to some, and maybe did it poorly, is how much insurance they would have to sell to make a profit.

Even if EVERY active RN bought a policy, that's only $300,000,000 per year coming in. Take away overhead, it seems they don't have very much to pay out and still be profitable. That tells me they aren't paying out much.

One thing I think you will agree with me on...we wish we were the ones who thought to sell malpractice insurance to nurses!

Again - I spend more at Starbucks. And it's not a risk I want to take.

Seriously - I don't miss $9 and some change a month. You do what you like, and I'll do what I like. I don't agree or disagree with you. I honestly couldn't care less what your personal decisions are. So why are you going so far out of your way to try and make me change mine? You're not making me look foolish, I'm not some sort of pawn, and I'm not a kid or some sort of goon who was sold a bill of goods. I thought hard about it and made the decision to carry it. I did the research. I asked questions. So what?

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Again - I spend more at Starbucks. And it's not a risk I want to take.

Seriously - I don't miss $9 and some change a month. You do what you like, and I'll do what I like. I don't agree or disagree with you. I honestly couldn't care less what your personal decisions are. So why are you going so far out of your way to try and make me change mine? You're not making me look foolish, I'm not some sort of pawn, and I'm not a kid or some sort of goon who was sold a bill of goods. I thought hard about it and made the decision to carry it. I did the research. I asked questions. So what?

I'm not trying to change your mind. As I alluded to above, I'm trying to get a compelling argument from someone to change mine. It's cheaper than Starbucks doesn't do it for me, as at least when I give Starbucks money I get something back.

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And I should point out that RiskManager is a he. I have just checked, and the shuttle is indeed in the hangar.

Sorry about that! It happens to me frequently here, too. I don't know why I did that.

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I'm not trying to change your mind. As I alluded to above, I'm trying to get a compelling argument from someone to change mine. It's cheaper than Starbucks doesn't do it for me, as at least when I give Starbucks money I get something back.

I'm thinking that no one will change your mind because you don't want it changed. And that's perfectly fine. I feel better with it. I'm not spending scads and scads of money on it. I have a husband who's a financial planner who agrees with my purchase and a friend who's a hellaciously good attorney who also agrees. I worry less and I spend less than the cost of a movie on it a month. I'm not trying to give you compelling reasons to buy it because your having it or not has zero effect on me. You obviously don't want it. So don't buy it.

Posting in a forum asking for compelling arguments to make a purchase you obviously don't want to make is a bit troll-like, now that I think about it.

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Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.
Sorry about that! It happens to me frequently here, too. I don't know why I did that.

Most risk managers in the USA/Canada are middle-aged white females, and pretty much everyone assumes I am in that demographic.

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Because there's inherently more risk in getting in an accident. No need to fish - we know the answer. By the same token you have a greater risk of getting in a car wreck than you do a plane crash, which is why travel insurance that pays out in the event you die at 38K feet is super cheap as well. That's neither rocket science nor a secret.

And as for not needing car insurance, try financing a car carrying only the limits of liability. You can't. You have to have full coverage until the car is paid for because you have a bank assuming a risk of loss - which is precisely why I said "only if it's paid for". Same with homeowner's. If you own your home outright - there's no mortgage - you don't need full coverage. You have to have it with a mortgage so the bank has protection against loss.

Your employer's insurance only covers you if they back you. If they wash their hands of you, you assume all the risk. For the cost of a couple of cups of coffee a month, I'll do what I can to avoid that.

And if a million dollars in auto liability is costing you $300 a month, you're living in the wrong state. I don't pay that for full coverage on three cars.

That is what i pay for my 2014 Honda insurance coverage-and that is after the Nso discount I get if i use Liberty Mutual.

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That is what i pay for my 2014 Honda insurance coverage-and that is after the Nso discount I get if i use Liberty Mutual.

Good God. We have a 2007 Porsche, a 2010 Maxima, and a 2003 Explorer. I pay $935 every six months for full coverage with double the minimum limits of liability, (3/3/6 instead of 1/1/3), rental, and towing, with a $250 deductible on collision and $100 on comprehensive, zero on windshield damage. Thank God for the state of NC and USAA.

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Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.

You may be able to get your auto insurance for cheaper if you drop the liability limits and get a personal umbrella policy to provide the higher limits. For example, my $2 million personal umbrella requires only $ 350,000 in liability limits for the underlying auto, motorcycle and homeowner's policies. So any liability over $ 350,000 and up to $ 2 million is covered by the personal umbrella.

This is much cheaper than buying $ 2 million in liability limits on the auto, motorcycle and homeowner's policies. Your insurance agent or broker can run the numbers for you, but it is essential to ensure that the primary policy limits are set at the level required by the umbrella. I have run into people with $ 200,000 in primary liability limits but their umbrella required $ 500,000. In the event of a claim, they would have been personally responsible for paying anything between the $200,000 and $ 500,00 limits; i.e. up to $ 300,000.

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Specializes in Educator.

I like you carried my own insurance for years. Then I let it slide for two years.....lo and behold I get a complaint lodged against my license (search my article on this experience). My insurance would have completely covered my attorney fees to defend my license. So while I have read the carefully crafted responses of everyone here, I am with OP. Peace of mind is priceless. I agree that does not cover everything and every possible scenario, the coverage it does provide is worth it to me. Each person has to weigh up their own situation and their stomach for risk.

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Good God. We have a 2007 Porsche, a 2010 Maxima, and a 2003 Explorer. I pay $935 every six months for full coverage with double the minimum limits of liability, (3/3/6 instead of 1/1/3), rental, and towing, with a $250 deductible on collision and $100 on comprehensive, zero on windshield damage. Thank God for the state of NC and USAA.

I never said I was paying $300 a month for auto liability.

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