Mandatory medical malpractice and more

Mandatory medical malpractice

Q. What are the details on the mandatory medical malpractice requirements in Connecticut?

A. The law requires several specific types of health care providers to maintain professional liability insurance or other indemnity against liability for professional malpractice. The minimum requirement is $500,000 per person, per occurrence; with an aggregate of $1.5 million (Section 20-11b).

The law authorizes medical licensing boards to restrict, suspend or revoke health care providers’ medical licenses if they fail to maintain the minimum malpractice insurance (Section 20-13c).

The law (Section 38a-393) applies to persons who provide direct patient care and who are licensed to practice the following:

• medicine and surgery;

• chiropractic;

• natureopathy;

• podiatric medicine; and

• advanced practice registered nursing.

Insurers are required by law to report to the state the names of all such practitioners whose malpractice policies are canceled or nonrenewed.—Helen K. Horn, CIC, CPIA, CISR

Comparative negligence

Q. What is the Connecticut state law on comparative negligence?

A. Connecticut law (C.G.S.A. Section 52-572(h)) permits recovery only where the plaintiff’s negligence was not greater than the defendant’s—known as the “50% rule.”

Both parties to an accident could make a claim only if each was 50% at fault, where each party pays 50% of the other party’s damages. You might say the party who has the most expensive car wins.—Dan Corbin, CPCU, CIC, LUTC

Ride hailing–what should I tell my clients

Q. How should I advise my clients if they are considering working with a ride-hailing service?

A. Consumers may believe they have insurance for this type of service. However, that may not be the case. Tell them that their own personal automobile insurance policy may not cover them, so they must contact their personal automobile insurance company before they start ride hailing.

The typical personal automobile liability policy excludes coverage for a livery business conducted via a personal vehicle. It is a common practice for insurance carriers to include a question on their initial insurance application or renewal questionnaire, which states: “Are you currently, or have you previously, worked with any ride-hailing services?”.

So, it is best to err on the side of caution and encourage your clients to contact you to discuss their individual policy to determine what coverage, if any, would respond to these types of ride-hailing situations. The Insurance Services Office Inc. introduced three personal auto policy endorsements in 2015 (see ISO introduces three new TNC endorsements in the PIA QuickSource library).

PIA has tracked this issue as new developments arise. For specific questions, contact PIA’s Industry Resource Center at (800) 424-4244 or email resourcecenter@pia.org.

—Bradford J. Lachut, Esq.