If you missed Part 1 of this article, read it here!

Occasionally, there is good news about compliance and risk. Good news came to every licensed healthcare practitioner in the nation on January 5, 2021, when the HITECH Act was amended with the new HIPAA Safe Harbor Law (HR 7898). This change created safe harbors under the law, but only if acted upon by the healthcare professional to protect themselves and their practice.

Finding yourself in a situation where a patient is unhappy with their treatment and asking for a refund, what should be your response? For example, you may feel that your work is satisfactory, and you are unwilling to provide a refund to the patient considering all the time you spent on their care. Or you may be seeking a quick resolution to the situation. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to handle patient refunds.

What is the Role of Empathy in Healthcare?
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It combines intellectual perspective with emotional understanding. Empathy is a skill that has not been historically emphasized in medical schools. However, it plays a crucial role in healthcare.

You’re a very busy chiropractor. With so much to do in a limited amount of time, you may only think about malpractice insurance once a year—at your renewal. You may even say to yourself, “I provide the best possible care to my patients and my records are impeccable. I’m not going to get sued, so why do I have to pay for malpractice insurance?”

You can practice the best of care, follow every protocol and keep meticulous records, but that still won’t prevent a claim being filed against you. Yes, all those measures may reduce your risk, but ultimately, it’s out of your control and in the hands of your patient. Simply put, claims are filed every day; some are legitimate and others are frivolous. You shouldn’t live in fear of being sued, but you also shouldn’t ignore the fact that it’s a real possibility.

You may believe that if you’re uninsured or “go bare,” you’re less of a target of being sued. You may even think that when your patient’s attorney finds out you don’t have malpractice insurance, he/she will drop the case because there’s less potential for substantial financial gain if the case is won. While this may happen in very rare instances, the fact is that the attorney can still go after your personal assets, livelihood and reputation.

Another factor to consider is that a malpractice claim can be filed against you after you retire. Imagine if you were traveling the world and then came home to find out that you were being sued by a patient you treated before your long-awaited retirement. Everything you worked so long and hard for and all the finances you saved to cover your expenses during retirement could be in jeopardy. However, if you had a claims-made policy while you were practicing and purchased tail coverage after the policy was terminated, but the incident happened during the time the policy was active, the policy may protect you against that claim.

As you can see, a patient can file a malpractice claim against you whether or not you carry malpractice insurance. It doesn’t matter whether you are an actively practicing chiropractor or retired—the threat of a lawsuit is still a concern. This can seem daunting, but there’s a simple solution that can give you peace of mind–a solution that’s not only necessary, but essential to the success of your practice. It’s to continuously carry malpractice insurance while you’re actively practicing and obtain tail coverage when you retire. With malpractice insurance, you can rest assured that you have a team of professionals helping protect you and your practice should a claim arise.

Don’t let one lawsuit take away the practice, reputation and lifestyle you worked tirelessly to build. The price of a malpractice policy is minimal compared to the financial loss a lawsuit can bring. Ask yourself this question, “Can I afford to be uninsured?”

If you don’t have malpractice insurance with OUM, now is the time to obtain coverage. Our team of knowledgeable professionals is readily available and happy to help you. At OUM, we’re with you. Every step of the way.

Contact us today for coverage information. Fill out our online form to get a no-obligation quote.

You’ve seen the term “Administrative Defense Coverage (ADC),” but do you really know what it is and understand why it’s so important to your practice?

An administrative claim is very different than a malpractice claim. For example, ADC provides defense for board actions brought against you, whereas malpractice insurance provides defense and indemnity for liability actions.

So why is ADC important? Because an administrative claim could cost you your livelihood! If your chiropractic license is revoked, you’ve lost your ability to practice. Your professional reputation is irrevocably damaged and your chiropractic career is over. Let that sink in.

Take a look at what our ADC covers. It’s included in your policy at $25,000 per policy period and in the aggregate.

• Administrative disciplinary actions
• MCO de-certification or contract terminations
• Actions brought by government payers such as Medicare or Medicaid
• Actions by state licensing boards
• Investigations involving billing and coding practices
• Meaningful Use audits

At some point in your career, you will be audited. In most instances, the first appeal of an administrative claim will fail. But did you know you could be able to appeal a Medicare claim up to five times? Because we know how devastating an ADC claim can be to a chiropractor’s practice, we will be there for you at each of the five levels of appeal allowed.*

Other actions may be covered, too. Check your policy for complete details. If you have any questions, call us! In fact, when you receive any notice - legal or otherwise - please call your OUM Risk Management Department as soon as possible for a confidential consultation at (800) 423-1504, and press 7. If you are not insured with OUM, fill out our online form to get a no-obligation quote.

In a word, yes. Many chiropractors significantly underestimate how much a breach will cost, and think they can self-insure it. Outlining what will happen in the event of a breach is very useful when understanding the value of cyber liability coverage. Below are a variety of claims scenarios that help illustrate the severity of cyber claims, and how widespread cyber breach activities are throughout the healthcare industry.

Scenario 1
Employees of a large chiropractic group discovered that their email accounts were not accessible. The group’s IT department investigated and discovered that a ransomware attack infected 10 servers and 50 workstations. The group had to close operations for two business days and suffered losses in relation to the event.

Cyber insurance covered a total of $83,050, as follows: