As the trend toward physician employment by hospitals continues to heat up, more healthcare systems are weighing the benefits and costs of providing malpractice coverage for doctors through in-house self-insurance plans.
An annual analysis of medical malpractice trends conducted jointly by risk-management firm Aon and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management finds that doctors insured by hospital-employers tend to have lower overall liability loss rates compared to their peers on commercial malpractice plans. However, hospitals also take on added administrative burdens and overall risk in the process.