Malpractice Insurance Question on Employment Applications??

[groovy jeff, RN]

I am a new grad trying to find a job. One of the applications I have filled out asked if I had malpractice insurance. How do you answer that question???

It seems that it would be in my best interest that no one know that I have malpractice insurance; not the patients, not my employer, not even my wife. It would seem to me that if the employer knew that and something were to happen (whether your fault or not) that they would throw you under the bus in a heartbeat to dodge any responsibility that they might have in the matter.

Also, having been an HR guy in my past life, I believe the legality of the question is questionable. For instance, they can't ask on an employment application if you already have health insurance.

Has anyone seen this on an employment application? How did you handle it?

[elkpark]

The only situation in which I've ever been asked that is on applications for the VA -- in their case, the application is worded so that they are assuming that you do have insurance, and they are asking you with which company you have Liability Insurance. I answered the question (yes, I do carry my own coverage, always) each time I've applied for a position at the VA. I don't really get the whole paranoia about being secretive about whether one has insurance or not. As far as letting an employer know, rest assured they will throw you under the bus if they can (to protect the facility) if the doo-doo hits the fan, entirely regardless of whether you have individual coverage or not (I've seen that happen to many other people when I was working as a hospital surveyor for my state).

I have no information or opinion about the legality of potential employers asking. As I said, I have no real concerns about answering the question, so that's just not an issue for me.

[groovy jeff, RN]

Any other opinions??

[caliotter3]

The only applications I have ever seen this on are the ones from the VA. However, this has come up when I got hired. They told me to bring in a copy of the policy cover sheet for my folder. While I do not agree with this, I needed the jobs, so I have complied. I also agree with you about the legality of it. But I supposed they have their way around any legality question. I also agree with the previous post that they will throw you under the bus any way you look at it. To be quite frank, when I was involved in a suit, the first word out of the attorney's mouth was to ask me if I had my own insurance. When I answered yes, then I was told that they could stop representing me at any time during the proceedings. So yes, the bus is always coming down the road, and it is headed for you.

[elkpark]

The only applications I have ever seen this on are the ones from the VA. However, this has come up when I got hired. They told me to bring in a copy of the policy cover sheet for my folder. While I do not agree with this, I needed the jobs, so I have complied. I also agree with you about the legality of it. But I supposed they have their way around any legality question. I also agree with the previous post that they will throw you under the bus any way you look at it. To be quite frank, when I was involved in a suit, the first word out of the attorney's mouth was to ask me if I had my own insurance. When I answered yes, then I was told that they could stop representing me at any time during the proceedings. So yes, the bus is always coming down the road, and it is headed for you.

Your employer can stop covering you at any point in the proceedings regardless of whether you have your own insurance or not -- all they have to do is find some way they can argue that you failed to follow precisely, completely, in every tiny detail, a (any) hospital policy/procedure. As soon as something bad happens, the hospital administration and attorneys start looking for someone they can blame and cut loose. When I worked as a hospital surveyor for several years for my state and the Feds, my team frequently investigated complaints that had a good chance of ending up as lawsuits at some point (in fact, I had hospital CEOs and attorneys tell me that plaintiffs' attorneys in the state had started telling potential clients to first make a complaint to the state so that we would do an investigation -- then, the attorney would request a copy of the final report of our investigation (which was public record), review the report, and then make a determination about whether they wanted to take the case (if there was really a malpractice case there ...), using us public servants to do their initial research for them at taxpayer expense ... (I really didn't like that, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.)) When we arrived to investigate a bad outcome of some sort, the hospital administration would typically fall all over themselves to tell us, right up front, that they had already completed their own, internal investigation and determined that the whole incident was Nurse X's fault (or Nurses X, Y, and Z, or whomever) and would reassure us that they had already fired Nurse X (to show their good will, remorse about the incident, blah, blah, blah ...) On reviewing the records, it would often be obvious that the only thing Nurse X had really done wrong was have the bad luck to be assigned to that particular client on that particular day, but the hospital administration had found someone they could scapegoat, and Nurse X's goose was cooked. I couldn't tell you how many times I saw that same scenario with my own eyes in the course of doing my surveyor job.

Maybe hospital administrations used to be more "warm and fuzzy," I don't know, but it's a new day -- they will cut you loose and leave you to dangle in the wind on a moment's notice if it will protect the facility, and it will make no difference whether you have your own insurance or not, and it will make no difference whether the hospital administration knows whether you have insurance or not. They will do what they have to to protect the facility/organization, regardless.