b'of when the claim is made. Claims madeclaims made policy. The ability to initiate thedamages. Entity malpractice insurance may be policies only protect the doctor while thecoverage date back to the previous policiesone way of protecting your practice.Obtain an policy is in effect. If the claim is made afterstart date offers flexibility for groups lookingoccurrence policy form and be aware that the the policy is expired, the doctor is exposedto align a mix of occurrence and claims- individual policy limits for the doctors cannot to liability. This gap can be mitigatedmade policies.exceed the corporate policy limit. by purchasing whats known as a tail (additional insurance for the period outside ofWhat if some of the doctors dontAsk about the ease of doing business the coverage span.) want to change their coverage?with the carrier. Is someone available to This is known to happen, and if thisanswer risk management questions as Heres where things get interesting: Lets saysounds like your group, then the groupunforeseen situations develop?Can all there are six or seven doctors in the practicecollectively would need to potentially makethe doctors policies be billed together and they each bought their professionalsome difficult decisions.Its not ideal.for administrative ease? Youll want to work liability policies at different points in theirConcessions may need to be made. Thewith a carrier that is accessible and willing to careers (from different companies, etc.)good news is you have choices, theres nowork with you, a carrier that is responsive to Some may have occurrence policies, somesingle right way to do this. A good advisoryour needswhether its about defending you bought claims made. If the group decidescan work with you and the carrier to designagainst a claim or streamlining your billing. Ask it wants to get everyone on the same tracka creative solution that works for youryour financial advisor about their experience (which groups want to do, generally), thengroup.working with the carrier. everyone needs to gravitate toward uniformed coverage. Decisions will need to be made onIf the group purchases a tail for eachWork with an experienced financial how to align these individual coverages.doctor from their previous carrier,professional. Does the advisor have the this can help avoid claims that mayresources to provide a concierge level of So, for example, if the practice as a grouphave resulted from treatment(s) priorservice and the sophistication to provide decides everyone should have occurrenceto when the doctors joined the group.solutions as you grow?In a rapidly growing policies, then those doctors who already hadThis is a perfect example of the flexibilitygroup practice, doctors may need to obtain occurrence policies may stop paying on theirthat a new policy can afford the entirecoverage on very short notice and turnover existing policies, and just start paying for thegroup. Say everyone in the group movesmay increase administrative responsibilities in new one. Their old occurrence policy wouldto an occurrence policy format, but somethe practice.This additional burden can be cover all their previous work to date, and theirfolks were coming in with claims-madereduced if the advisor has the bandwidth to staff current and future work would be covered bypolicies. The group decides to buy separateaccording to your current needs as well as your the new occurrence policy.tail coverage, providing protection for eachintended growth strategy. We cant say enough doctor back to the start of their originalabout working with a firm that has experience Lets say a handful of the doctors had claims- claims-made policies. This way, a claimand expertise in helping dentists, groups, made policies in this group. To align theirthat didnt occur within this group wouldand DSOs with malpractice and other risk policies with the new format (occurrence),be the responsibility of the carrier thatmanagement topics. There is a huge amount of some decisions would need to be made. Theythey purchased the tail from (typically thedetail that needs to be considered, and one size could drop their old claims made policiesprevious provider) and potentially not impactdoes not fit all. This is where an experienced and transition to a new occurrence policy,the integrity of the block of coverage withadvisor becomes invaluable to your success.but this would mean that all their past workthe new carrier.would not be covered by the new policy. ItAbout Treloar & Heisel would be wise to purchase a tail for thisKnow your limits.Make sure you knowTreloar & Heisel, an EPIC Company, offers dental subset of doctors from the current carrier. Bythe per-claim limits and your aggregateand medical professionals a comprehensive the way, the technical term for this additionallimits of coverage. Also, when you move asuite of financial products and services ranging policy (tail) is an extended reportinggroup of doctors to new policies, you shouldfrom business and personal insurance to wealth endorsement.consider your exposure and investigatemanagement. We are proud to assist thousands Its possible to initiate a new policythe costs of increasing coverage.Oftenof clients from residency to practice and through based on a retroactive start date. Justcoverage can be significantly increasedretirement. Our experienced teams deliver and the increase in cost is substantiallycustom-tailored advice through an active local to offer a third way, its possible to get a newlower than the proportional increase in claims-made policy with a new carrier andpresence, while our strong national network coverage. You will also want to addressensures that clients experience the same high to ask the carrier to cover them retroactivelycorporate or entity coverage. In the event to some start date in the past, so that theylevel of service throughout the country.of a malpractice lawsuit, your dentalFor more information, visit us atare covered back to the beginning of their oldpractice may be named and found liable forwww.treloaronline.comAAP Periospectives| 27'