Beazley's New Management Liability Coverage is Tailored to
Unique Needs of Healthcare Organizations
Chicago, Illinois, May 21, 2009
By combining the expertise of its management
liability and healthcare teams, Beazley Group (BEZ.L) has developed
enhanced management liability coverage that is precisely tailored
to the needs of healthcare organizations, including hospitals, long
term care facilities and academic medical centers.
The coverage is an adaptation of Beazley’s
successful BeazleyOne management liability package policy and
protects healthcare organizations against directors’ and officers’
risks, employment practices liability risks, and fiduciary
risks. A number of risks loom large for healthcare providers
that are less of a concern for other organizations. These
risks, all of which are covered under the new Beazley policy,
include:
- Failure to perform provider
selection, credentialing or peer review activities
- Defense coverage for
governmental return of funds claims, triggered when reimbursements
from government administered programs such as Medicare and Medicaid
are subsequently called into question.
- Affirmative antitrust
coverage. Antitrust laws, not always well understood by
healthcare organizations, can entail severe penalties when efforts
to share services or jointly negotiate better reimbursement terms
are deemed to constrain competition and harm consumer
interests.
- Full defense coverage for
EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act), Excess
Benefit and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act) claims.
The coverage, which is
available in the admitted market with limits of up to $10,000,000,
also includes a broad definition of insured persons, including
staff physicians, medical directors, faculty members (at academic
medical centers), volunteers and independent contractors.
An additional unique feature
of the BeazleyOne policy that may prove valuable to long term care
organizations is “employment event” coverage to cover the cost of
hiring a public relations firm, a security firm or mental health
professionals to cope with major events affecting the workforce,
such as layoffs of more than 20% of employees, high profile
discrimination lawsuits, or workplace disasters causing loss of
life.
In addition to insurance
coverage, BeazleyOne policyholders have access to BeazleySource, a
risk management website providing practical and valuable loss
prevention advice in the D&O, EPL and fiduciary
arenas. Among other resources, the site includes a wide
variety of online training modules on matters such as employee
termination and preventing employee discrimination, and preventing
sexual harassment.
Kieran Dempsey, underwriter
with Beazley’s healthcare team in Chicago, said:
“Beazley is the largest insurer of US D&O risks in the London
market and one of the leading insurers of professional liability
risks for major healthcare organizations, including three of the
top 10 “honor roll” hospitals listed by US News & World
Report. Our clients and their brokers have told us that
traditional management liability policies do not adequately cover
their exposures. This enhanced version of BeazleyOne is
designed to address their concerns.
“With an underwriting team that
combines decades of experience of both management liability and
healthcare risks, we are well equipped to design coverage that will
respond surely and swiftly to threats that other policies may
miss. We believe that the enhanced BeazleyOne policy sets a
new standard for management liability coverage for healthcare
organizations.”
PDF
version