Medical Malpractice Insurance

How to Choose the Best Medical Malpractice Insurance Carrier

Depending on your state of practice, you may have several of these top medical malpractice insurance companies available when considering a partner for your medical malpractice insurance. As a buyer of your own malpractice insurance, you should consider the carrier’s financial strength as a critical factor. If your carrier is unable to pay a claim due to financial instability, that becomes a problem for you. Once you have identified several strong carriers as potential options, you may consider the coverage features and price as important factors. Price is easy to evaluate once you have the quotes but understanding the “guts” of the policy can be difficult. A few very important policy features to look for include defense costs, coverage trigger, and consent to settle.

• Defense costs in addition to the limits of liability is preferred. Otherwise, your coverage limit is eroded by the expensive cost of legal fees to your defense attorneys.

• An incident trigger is better than a demand trigger. An incident trigger allows you to report a claim when an incident occurs. On the other hand, a demand trigger requires a written demand for damages before you can report a claim.

• A malpractice insurance policy that requires your consent to settle a claim allows you to voice your opinion to fight a meritless claim even if would be cheaper for the insurance carrier to pay a settlement. If your consent is not required, the insurance carrier can settle as they see fit, which may not be what you want to do. If you disagree with the carrier and a larger payout is made, you may be on the wrong side of the “hammer” clause, which means you would pay the difference.

The major insurers in the state of Michigan are: 

Aspen American Insurance Company - AM Rating: A Excellent
Coverys Group - AM Rating: A Excellent
The Doctors Company - AM Rating: A Excellent
ISMIE Group - AM Rating: A- Excellent
MagMutual Insurance Company - AM Rating: A Excellent
Medical Protective - AM Rating: A++ Superior
Michigan Professional Insurance Exchange (MPIE) - AM Rating: A Excellent
ProAssurance (acquired NORCAL in 2020) - AM Rating: A Excellent

These groups are posted based on research by MOA staff. If you receive a good or bad experience by any of these companies—or if you find another company that offers medical malpractice insurance in Michigan— please let us know. 

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