10 February 2022 | 5-minute read
Medical Malpractice insurance is a specialist type of professional liability insurance for healthcare providers. It provides cover for claims arising from medical negligence or malpractice resulting in a patient’s injury or death. Policies usually cover the cost of paying compensation but also include limits for defence costs, expert witnesses and other legal fees that may arise.
The Lloyd’s Medical Malpractice market is focussed on US business and underwrote circa US$600m in 2020, with growth expected into 2022. Currently “med mal” insurers are facing moderate to hardening market conditions, although 2021 was an uncertain year for carriers, with COVID-19 related litigation and premium refunds and credits given due to a drop in the number of medical procedures undertaken.
The LMA is working with underwriters to support and assist this market, with several important projects underway.
Future of the LMA group
The LMA’s Medical Malpractice work has traditionally been limited to a sub-committee of the North American Errors and Omissions Committee. We are pleased to confirm that this group is now a full committee in its own right in 2022. A notice will be sent round the Lloyd’s market in early 2022 to seek potential new members.
Wordings
An LMA working group is currently completing a review of the Excess Health Care Provider’s Liability Policy. Meeting weekly, the main focus of the review is to update and modernise policy language. With the assistance of lawyers from Clark Hill and Mendes law firms on various clauses, the aim is to have a draft completed by the end of February. Consultation with brokers and company markets will then take place. Once complete, the wording will be published as a LMA model wording.
A future wordings project being considered is a redraft and update of the LSW228 and LSW 229 wordings to achieve a standardised non-US wording.
Emerging trends
Insurers may struggle to quantify the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on their portfolio. A recent presentation by Connings Insurance Research Group, suggests that despite minimal claims activity to date, it is likely this long-tail class will see more COVID-19 related litigation in the future.
Katie Clark
Executive, Technical Underwriting