While everyone else is gearing up for fun, festivities, and the much-needed downtime the holidays bring, as a medical practice owner, the holidays often mean longer hours, from winter sickness to pampering yourself at a medspa. It’s time to bring in the holiday cheer to your practice, making it a warm, inviting environment for both staff and patients alike.
You can decorate your office seasonally around the holidays without excluding or offending those who don’t participate in certain holidays; all you have to do is check out these 7 tips to make your medical practice or medspa holiday-ready with affordable seasonal decorating.
1. Decorate with fruit: from fresh fruit to sparkling faux produce, decorating with bowls of fruit is a great way to bring in some color and texture in seasonal hues. Be sure to bring in some pumpkins, cabbages, gourds, or pinecones for the cooler seasons.
If you have decided that a captive is the right answer for your medical practice, the first thing to do is seek out professionals and advisers that have the necessary legal, actuarial and accounting experience to guide you. The David Agency has been working with individuals and medical practice owners to set-up Captives for over 25 years. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to explore setting up your own captive insurance program. Here is a quick primer to help get you thinking about setting up a captive insurance company and what you should consider:
1. Where Will My Captive Be Domiciled?
You will need to select between an onshore (within 50 States) or offshore (outside the US) domicile. Consider the regulatory environment and quality of support services available. It is recommended that you visit the domicile before you commit to setting up your captive there.
2. How Do I Find The Right Partners?
Along with finding the right domicile, you must make sure that you partner with the right groups. Your David Agency Specialist can introduce you to actuaries, attorneys, tax-preparers and US-Based Insurance Agencies that have experience setting-up and running Captives.
3. Does My Company Have What It Takes To Start A Captive?
Captives are operating insurance companies so they must receive funds immediately and invest those funds in a prudent manner so they are available to pay claims. A Captive that is improperly run can cost the business substantially. Owners need to know the financial health of the Captive and audit regularly.
As you may have suspected, Xiaoyi is not your typical medical student. Instead, "she" is a robot designed to use artificial intelligence to learn the practice of medicine and deliver care in a clinical setting. Xiaoyi is programmed with the ability to learn, reason and make independent judgements. And, while she may not be ready to open her own practice, that day is on the horizon.
But before we panic and start calling for the destruction of Skynet (Sorry for the geeky SciFi reference) let's take a moment to think about how this new technology will be introduced to the medical community and what effects we'll see in the months and years ahead. At this point, Xiaoyi is just helping doctors by making suggestions and offering options for providing care.
Robots are probably NOT going to take over the role of the Primary Care Physician any time soon. Patients are not ready or eager to receive all their medical care from robots just as they are not ready to take their hands off the steering wheel and let their car take over driving duties. Baby steps. But what we are seeing is software that assists caregivers with their decision-making and provides a second set of "eyes" to back up the humans.
So if you are currently in medical school and worried that the robots are coming for your job, rest assured that you've got plenty of time to earn a great living practicing medicine and delivering care to patients, but you may want to take a few programming classes in the evening, just to be safe.
One thing that might stop a perspective job-hunter in their tracks is the Tail provision of their Employment Agreement regarding your Claims-Made Medical Malpractice Insurance policy. If your Employment Contract states that, if you leave, you are responsible for purchasing your own tail-policy then you just may be stuck in your current job until you save up enough money to make the big move.
Before we go into your options for purchasing a Tail-policy, let's define exactly what a tail is and how it relates to your Claims-Made policy coverage.
Simply put, a Tail - is an extended reporting period endorsement, offered by the current malpractice insurance carrier, which allows an insured medical provider the option to extend medical malpractice insurance coverage after the cancellation or termination of their claims-made policy. Tail's only come into the picture when we are discussing a Claims-Made-Type-Policy. Once you cancel a Claims-Made policy, it stops covering you if you have future claims and the Tail policy is what will cover you against future claims. Got it?
Tail's are very expensive. most insurance companies charge roughly two-times (2X) the expiring premium. So if your coverage cost $20K last year, your tail quote will probably be around $40K. Because Tail policies are so expensive, a secondary market (Stand-Alone-Tail) has popped-up to provide cheaper tail coverage, BUT BEWARE, some of the companies offering cheaper coverage may not be as financially secure as they appear to be. Never purchase a Stand-Alone-Tail from a company that does not have an A-rating or better from AM Best. Sure you may save a little money by buying a policy from an unrated company, but if they are not there a few years down the road to defend a claim, that money you saved is going to be coming out of your pocket.
If you would like to learn more about Stand-Alone-Tails or about your options please contact The David Agency today.
• The David Agency has been helping medical providers manage risks for over 43 years. We specialize in providing TAIL Insurance quotes for physicians, medical practice owners and medical personnel.
• Experience counts . If you received a TAIL quote and want to shop the market, please contact us. We have access to over 100 companies that offer STAND-ALONE-TAIL quotes.
• Team of Professionals. If you do have a claim made against you, your David Agency rep will help you navigate the claim process and act as your advocate to the insurance company.
