The first way is through your employer, be it the hospital or the Anesthesia group. To be sure you are covered, make sure they include you on the policy as a "named insured." If your name is on the policy it is pretty hard for anyone to say you were not covered. The down side is the insurance company may make you a sacrificial lamb. Better to settle for a little saying it is your fault than to risk a lot defending you. Since you are not the policy holder and just one named in the policy you can not force it to trial if the insurance company and policy holder wants to settle.
The second way is to go buy your own policy. It does not matter if you work for a hospital or anesthesia group, you can still get your own policy. Then there is no question as to who the insurance company will take care of in case of a suit. You are the "whole ball of wax." The down side is if you got insurance someone will go after it. In some suits they just fire a shot gun at everyone hoping some will settle without a fight. And on occasion the IRA tries to say that since your employer had you covered then you really do not need your own policy and therefore can not be used as a professional write off.
The biggest disadvantage of both of the above is that the policies are "claims filed" policies that only cover claims filed in the year you are covered. If you had insurance in 2008 then retire and get sued in 2009 and did not buy a tail or continued the coverage then you are screwed. Considering they allow suits for X number of years "after discovery" if you did not buy the tail you can get sued years, or even decades after you retired.
The third way is to be an independent contractor and sell your services to the group as a 1099 contract worker. If you work through an agency, you can get a claims occurred policy. So if you work in 2008, retired and get sued in 2009 for a case done in 2008, you are covered. You do not have to buy a tail nor worry about cases coming back to haunt you.
Stanley can not figure out where people get their facts in regards to the cost of education nor the economics of the anesthesia profession.
Stanley, that comes with being out here for three decades working. Come back in three decades and you can give facts also and only another young puppy will bark about it.
