Brokers could look to target allied health professionals for medical malpractice cover as an opportunity to grow their businesses, an expert has said.
Hamish McDonald Nye, executive director of
ProRisk, said that there is opportunity for brokers to target the medical malpractice market through the wide range of allied health professional industries that require the cover.
“I think there is a lot of opportunity for brokers who want to focus on those subsectors,” McDonald Nye told
Insurance Business. “I don’t think you need to be uniquely specialised. It is like any subsector, brokers can get into it if they do a bit of reading and focus.”
However, medical malpractice cover is often misunderstood which McDonald Nye said is due to a number of reasons.
“I think it is a combination of people not frequently trading in it, the fact that there are medical defence organisations that predominantly control the practitioner cover market and just the structure of the product,” McDonald Nye continued. “Another factor is that there are a lot of different regulators that people aren’t used to.”
Brokers can look to use their expertise to ensure that clients engage legal representation if a claim is made against them as the advent of no cost dispute resolution facilities has made it easier to lodge complaints and more expensive for cover holders to defend themselves.
In addition, McDonald Nye said that brokers should look to build their knowledge on the regulators, such as the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), as a way of understanding the needs of potential clients.
Thankfully, from a pricing perspective, McDonald Nye said that the market is competitive.
“There are not a lot of participants in the market but it is very keenly priced,” McDonald Nye continued. “Cover is pretty broad. Just with professional indemnity, for example, you’ve got a lot of fairly broad extensions coming in like cyber and statutory liability.”
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