Beazley launches Virtual Care, the first integrated insurance policy for healthcare providers and technology companies active...
July 13 2017 - 1:22PM
Beazley, a leading insurer of healthcare, technology and privacy
risks, has launched a pioneering insurance policy to cover all
organizations involved in the provision of telemedicine.
Currently, a company active in the fast growing telemedicine
sector will normally need at least two insurance policies, and
often more, to cover its varied exposures. Deep expertise in
underwriting medical malpractice, technology errors & omissions
and privacy coverages is rarely found in one insurer.
Virtual Care avoids the potential gaps in coverage that can
arise with such a piecemeal approach. The coverage can be
tailored to meet the needs of all participants in the telemedicine
value chain, including:
- medical providers, including physicians, psychiatrists,
psychologists, registered nurses, midwives, and many other
ancillary providers;
- software/hardware manufacturers or developers; and
- telemedicine platform hosts.
In some cases, a single entity can act in all three of the above
capacities. Beazley has insured a number of organizations engaged
in designing telemedicine apps, hosting the platforms and also
providing medical services.
Telemedicine offers significant benefits for healthcare
providers and patients alike. It provides on-demand access to
high quality medical expertise that may be difficult or impossible
to access locally. With an aging population and a rising
incidence of chronic diseases, it can alleviate the burden on the
healthcare system. And technological advances, particularly
in areas such as ambulatory care and remote patient monitoring,
continually broaden the services that can be provided.
But telemedicine also presents unique risks, which Beazley’s
Virtual Care policy addresses. These include potential
jurisdictional issues and legal challenges when a doctor is in one
state or country and his or her patients in another. It is
also clearly more difficult for a remote physician or other
healthcare professional to intervene in a rapidly deteriorating or
acute situation.
For technology providers, many risks clearly relate to the
functioning of the hardware or software they supply. But privacy
risks can also be more significant than in other sectors: the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) imposes
onerous requirements on entities entrusted with maintaining the
privacy of “individually identifiable health information”.
Evan Smith, Beazley’s focus group leader for miscellaneous
medical risks, said:
“Telemedicine is one of the fastest growing sectors of the
healthcare market, with revenues projected to rise by between 35%
and 50% annually in the coming years. But medical providers
and technology companies require robust protection for the varied
and often unique risks that telemedicine presents. Virtual
Care is unique in providing this coverage through a single
policy.”
Jennifer Schoenthal, healthcare underwriter, said:
“Telemedicine isn’t a new or emerging field, it is a well
established delivery method of medicine that is gaining increasing
popularity. Our Beazley Virtual Care policy was designed to
meet the needs of this industry as it continues to grow and
evolve.”
Note to editors:
Beazley plc is the parent company of specialist insurance
businesses with operations in Europe, the US, Canada, Latin
America, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. Beazley manages six
Lloyd’s syndicates and, in 2016, underwrote gross premiums
worldwide of $2,195.6 million. All Lloyd’s syndicates are rated A
by A.M. Best.
Beazley’s underwriters in the United States focus on writing a
range of specialist insurance products. In the admitted market,
coverage is provided by Beazley Insurance Company, Inc., an A.M.
Best A rated carrier licensed in all 50 states. In the surplus
lines market, coverage is provided by the Beazley syndicates at
Lloyd’s.
Beazley is a market leader in many of its chosen lines,
which include professional indemnity, property, marine,
reinsurance, accident and life, and political risks and contingency
business.
For more information please go to: www.beazley.com
CBSL506_US_07/17
Hunter Hoffman
Beazley Group
917-344-3329
Hunter.Hoffmann@beazley.com
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