An indemnity plan is a protection scheme for doctors and professionals in general against the liability of high costs due to any unintentional mishappenings in the treatment provided. Most of us know about doctors being accused of negligence while treating a patient. This negligence has a great impact on the patient’s family as a result of which they take legal actions against the doctors and sue them for a high price. In some cases, the Hospitals may have played a role in the negative effect of the treatment, for example asking the patient to undergo unnecessary tests in the greed of money. Apart from all this, what the public or the doctors forget is, Doctors are humans too; they also make mistakes.

Why is it important?

Although the legal proceedings on careless doctors can’t be questioned, to protect doctors from the financial risk, a financial cover known as Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) is introduced. This policy covers the whole amount that the doctor or any other professional should pay as a fine for the carelessness while providing the service. They cover Professional Negligence, Unintentional breach of copyright or confidentiality, Loss of documents or data, Claim investigation costs, Offense & insult, Loss of goods or money. It doesn’t cover Intentional damage, Claims and circumstances known before issuance of the policy, Act of Terrorism or war, Contractual liability, and Insolvency of the insured.

Indian government and PII.

India has a record of approximately 5.2 million cases per year, which ranges from the wrong prescription, wrong dose, wrong patient, and wrong surgery for which the reasons can be not just the doctor, But still, the practitioner is held liable. The Indian Dental Association launched the first PII at the 65th Indian Dental Association Conference held in Mumbai on February 1, 2012.

How to get a PII? and some policies.

The Indian dental insurance sector in it initial stages, only a very few like “The New India Assurance Company Limited,” “The Oriental Insurance Company Limited,” “National Insurance Company Limited with the Indian Dental Association,” “Reliance General Insurance,” and “ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd” are providing PII.

Insurance may cost about Rs. 450 – 5000 depending on the insurance company and the doctor’s, specialty, experience, equipment, etc.,

The limit of indemnity Indemnity is the insured amount. This follows the concept of AOA(Any One Accident) and AOY(Any One Year) which is set prior and determines the series of claims allowed on the same error or service. This ratio should be decided depending upon the nature of the treatment, the frequency of damage that could happen to the patient. The policies may get revised based on the insurance provider.

In the case of claiming PII, The insurance company should be made aware of the liability. If you receive a legal notice, the insurance company should be alerted as soon as possible.

Final words.

A study conducted in March 2015, proved that about 51.9 % of dental practitioners are not aware of the indemnity. Also, the experienced practitioners of age 34-45 years were more aware than the beginners of age 18-24 years. 1 % of the dentists were held liable and only 8 % of them were insured. The increased awareness of consumer rights and judiciary campaigns among the public has increased the number of doctors legally sued by the patients. Like in the health-care field, sometimes unforeseen mishaps can occur despite our best efforts. In the survey, about 90.2 % of dentists were interested in getting indemnity insurance after knowing about the benefits of them. It is the need of the hour for Dental practitioners to adopt PIIs.

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