Tail coverage is purchased when your claims-made policy is canceled or non-renewed. Tail coverage continues insurance protection under your claims-made policy for claims arising in the future, but which occurred when your policy was in force. Tail coverage is expensive because it continues coverage into the future. (Tail coverage is also known as a reporting endorsement.)
LSA offers free tail coverage to physicians who:
are 50 years of age or older; and
have been continuously insured with LSA for 5 years or more; and
cancel their policy due to complete retirement from the practice of medicine.
LSA waives the tail premium if the physician dies or retires due to medical disability.
Prior Acts Coverage
Another type of supplemental coverage is prior acts coverage, which is purchased from your new insurance carrier when you change carriers. Prior acts covers incidents that occurred under a previous claims-made policy and which have not yet been reported. If new claims arise that occurred during the prior acts period, they are reported to your new carrier to be covered under the prior acts policy. (Prior acts is also known as “nose coverage.”)
Premises Liability
All LSA policies include limited professional premises liability coverage with limits of $200,000 per claim/$200,000 per policy period.
Under this coverage, LSA will pay compensatory damages for claims arising out of premises injury or damages to any patient that:
occur during the policy period and within the policy territory;
are caused by a premises occurrence; and
arise out of your ownership or leasehold interest in the insured premises.
The coverage only applies to claims by patients, and it does not eliminate the need for a general liability policy for your practice.
Locum Tenens
Locum tenens provides indemnity and defense coverage to a substitute physician who assumes responsibility for your patients during a scheduled absence.
All LSA policyholders can request locum tenens coverage for up to 30 days per policy year without an additional premium charge. Coverage for more than 30 days will incur a fee of $500 per day.
Requests for locum tenens coverage require written notice before the scheduled absence, and the substitute physician must submit an application to the LSA Underwriting Department for review and acceptance.