{ business solutions } by Missouri Dental Insurance Services
Assessing, managing risk E
by JERRI WILDHABER
very day in your office, you have many risks to assess and manage accordingly—but did you know that a feature of your Malpractice or Employers Practice Liability Insurance policies is providing risk management services to help you? As a bonus, this expert advice is provided at no extra cost to you, so why not take advantage of it?
MedPro (the endorsed malpractice carrier of the MDA), provides an extraordinary risk management team that can help answer questions such as:
• You have a patient who recently had a crown put on but went to another dentist who said it needed to be redone. The patient is asking for a refund to pay for the new crown being done by another dentist. Should you refund them? Call the risk manager.
• You have a patient sitting in the chair who has not been follow- ing your treatment plan and is blaming you that things are not working out as you advised they would. What should you do? Call the risk manager.
• You have a patient who has come in for an extraction, everything goes fine and you send them home with instructions. The pa- tient calls the next day to say they have experienced continuous bleeding since they left your office and is going to the emergency room and will send you the bill for it. Are you liable for this? Call the risk manager.
I could give you examples all day, but if it relates to your patient and the treatment you are providing them, a best practice would be to always reach out to a risk manager as it relates to your malpractice policy. You also can use the risk management team to help review your informed consent documents, or perhaps they have a sample form that can be shared with you.
MedPro also provides a series of risk management on-demand webinars which are one hour long and in taking two each policy year, you can obtain a policy discount (and CE credit)!
Employers Practice Liability Insurance (EPLI) offered through various carriers at MDIS can provide risk management services in relation to your employees—current, potential or past. A few examples of EPLI risk management are:
• You have an employee who has repeatedly ignored your requests to improve their performance and you want to terminate them. How do you go about this? Call a risk manager.
• You have an employee who alleges you did not promote them over another employee, even though they are just as qualified.
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The employee wants to sue you for failure to promote. How do you handle this situation? Call a risk manager.
• You do not have a handbook, but want to create one. Where do you start? Call a risk manager.
Again, the lists of examples are endless, but you get the idea. Any- thing that has to do with your employees and employment related allegations merits the use of risk management with respect to your EPLI coverage. Remember, sample documents for human resources purposes are often available as well.
Seeking risk management expertise is NOT the same as opening a claim. Instead, it is the utilization of risk management to avoid a claim. Carrier-staffed risk managers specialize in mitigating risk, and using their services is to your advantage. To find out more on risk management as it relates to your insurance, contact the MDIS office. f
Contact Jerri at MDIS to discuss risk management policies and services available to you, jerri@mdis4dds.com or 800-944-7550.
