Be sure your employer's insurance covers you as a named insured

Insurance policy language can be tricky. The last thing the nurse practitioner and employer want is to find, after being sued, that a clinician isn't covered.

When a nurse practitioner is covered under an employer's malpractice insurance policy, it is important for the nurse practitioner to be sure that he or she is a "named insured." One finds the list of "named insureds" on the declarations page of the policy.

Here is why this is important. In a case -- Connecticut Medical Insurance Co. v. Kulikowski, 942 A.2d 334 (2008) -- a nurse practitioner was referred to by job title but not named on the declarations page of her employer's malpractice policy. Both the nurse practitioner and employer (a physician) were sued. The parties settled with the plaintiff for over $1 million. The insurer paid the plaintiff $1 million. The plaintiff (the injured patient's family) sued the insurer, arguing that the defendants were covered for $2 million -- $1 million per provider. The trial court held that the named insured -- the physician -- was covered for $1 million and, if the nurse practitioner had been named as insured, she would have been covered for another $1 million, but, as she was not named, any coverage for her would be included under the $1 million for the physician.

This case means that in the settlement between patient and clinicians, any amount over the $1 million paid by the insurance company on behalf of the named physician would need to come from the clinicians.

This case tells us that the best coverage for a nurse practitioner who is covered under an employer's policy is when the nurse practitioner is a "named insured." "Named" means a person's name, not "nurse practitioner."

Source: Carolyn Buppert NP, JD www.buppert.com