Types of Insurance for Medical Staffing Agencies: Protecting Against Liability Conditions

Business insurance for medical staffing agencies is essential when you consider how easily random accidents can happen in the medical field. While you can say that about any industry, the medical profession has more vulnerabilities due to ill patients and complex equipment.

If you run a medical staffing agency, you understand this better than anyone, yet you’re perhaps stuck on deciding what kind of insurance to obtain.

Your biggest challenge is dealing with co-employment laws as you employ medical professionals from all medical fields. Whether it’s placing doctors, nurses, medical assistants, or nursing assistants, injury to any of them could happen any time. When these people work with ailing patients, unexpected specific injuries could occur from both sides. Physical injuries to the back or even catching a disease are always possible on the worker’s side.

The same goes for when working with medical equipment. An accident occurring with these items could lead to the injury of others, or damage to medical facility property. Plus, when it comes to liability, you usually need liability insurance that focuses strictly on the medical industry itself.

General Liability Insurance

When you get a general liability insurance plan, you can protect yourself from various angles. While you may have to get medical professional liability later for more specific protections, general liability covers a lot of the main workplace risks.

As with most general liability policies, you’re covered if property damage occurs or if a client gets injured on the job. These could happen together in an unfortunate medical situation. Then again, anything can happen with even the simplest of tasks.

What’s important is that general liability helps protect you if the medical facility decides to sue you for property damage or other scenario. It doesn’t matter if the lawsuit is fraudulent. You’re protected legally this way, and it’s an imperative considering how expensive litigation is.

Keep in mind, though, that general liability does live up to its name. You’ll be covered for things like theft and property destruction. For more protection on a professional liability level, you’ll need an additional policy.

Medical Professional Liability Plans

Placing medical professionals in various facilities could mean some serious accidents due to learning new procedures. On a professional level, it could lead to claims of malpractice or negligence. This only places a major legal burden on you since you’re responsible for the hire.

That’s why medical professional liability policies usually complement general liability. Many more specific liability policies are available to help get more thorough protection. Finding a medical liability plan isn’t hard to do, and it covers all the points associated with malpractice or negligence claims.

The above goes into not only claims of physical injury, but also mental anguish. Because lawyers ultimately win in these cases, you’re covered in all the legal costs you’d have to pay to defend yourself.

Workers’ Comp

It’s standard to get workers’ comp to help protect against your client getting injured. They could come after you legally for these injuries without these state-mandated benefits. Workers’ comp again protects your staffing agency on a financial level.

Before you decide on workers’ compensation, see what the benefits are in your state. They vary, though policies usually cover medical care and pay percentage from lost wages. It could also include the extra of employers’ liability. Most states, including New Jersey, require workers’ compensation insurance.

Fidelity and Surety Bonds

Having fidelity and surety bonds in your corner can protect you and the hired workers. Fidelity bonds give you protection from being sued if the hired worker does something unscrupulous (like steal from a facility at which they’ve been placed by your agency). Individual fidelity bonds are available to protect against specific situations.

Surety bonds cover broad scenario categories as well. The surety giving the bond pays for any losses incurred by the associated medical facility.

While many of these are standard types of insurance that any business should have in order to avoid risks, it’s even more important for medical staffing agencies to obtain all of this and more. Given the precarious nature of the industry, it’s better to be safe than sorry. A trustworthy insurance company (like us) can help you navigate the specifics so you’re fully covered.