According to a recent study of 54 hospitals across the country by Aon and the American Society of Healthcare Risk Management, 80 percent of hospital risk managers are now self-insuring their physicians.
Jack Meyer, senior vice president for The Doctors Company, a medical malpractice insurance company, said this percentage has risen since last year. As more hospitals self-insure their physicians, or self-insure more physicians, he said, hospitals are presented with a unique set of challenges, including establishing and managing an adequate amount of capital assets to sufficiently address claims against physician employees.
According to Meyer, there are a number of perceived benefits of self-insurance, including the potential for cost savings, unified claims defense and uniformity of system-wide risk management.
However, there are also many challenges for hospitals associated with this approach, he said, because many hospital systems are not as competent dealing with physician claims or even calculating the risk model for an organization, which includes liability for physician risk.
The total financial commitment required can be significant, Meyer said, and any functional failures could mean the collapse of hospitals' self-insurance systems, which, in turn, could leave physicians exposed.
Meyer said that medical malpractice insurance companies may offer options with benefits similar to self-insurance that allow medical organizations to participate in an insurance program without the expense or risk of a self-insured program.