Why Academic?
The Academic Advantage
With our roots in the teaching profession, it is not surprising that Academic enters the national market for medical faculty liability insurance with a number of compelling advantages for its members.
Paramount among these is the company's historically low loss history during its 17 years of doing business, with both claims frequency and claims severity (cost of claims) significantly lower than the New York State average for physicians, according to a recent actuarial study.
At the same time, Academic's unique underwriting methodologies have provided our members with discounts for all relevant factors associated with faculty practice, resulting in physician subscribers paying a premium that is both stable and the lowest available in New York State.
We take your reputation as seriously as you do
As physicians we understand that no matter how careful we are, many of us will eventually find that we are the subject of a legal matter involving a malpractice claim.
Our goal is to first help our members avoid this issue through our rigorous professional liability training program. We provide specialty-oriented seminars covering issues that cover topics like documentation, communications, legal standard of care, as well as the all-important faculty-resident relationship.
Offered free to subscribers, online, annual training is mandated by the Board of Governors. Courses are developed through an alliance with Education in Legal Medicine Exchange, Inc., a highly respected medico-legal educational service organization. Board members and interested policyholders are encouraged to participate in developing training programs and educational content. Workshops and seminars are also periodically conducted at each campus.
The experienced insurance professionals from the Academic Solutions team are also available to members. Because many matters require difficult judgment calls under pressure, Academic subscribers have access to a 24-hour legal hotline, where legal experts respond in real-time to situations as they develop.
Thoughtful innovation
The Academic Group has been a thoughtful innovator throughout its history, developing and delivering new insurance products to meet the changing needs of its members. This includes policies providing worldwide coverage to faculty, policies designed to protect visiting professors, and coverage for medical faculty based outside the U.S.
We continue to explore new ways to serve our subscribers with new products to cover residents, foreign physicians visiting in the U.S., and procedures supervised at a distance.
Working continually to translate the day-to-day experiences of our members into a better company is just one more example of the Academic advantage.
Solutions for:
back to topFaculty Physicians and Dentists
If it often seems that no one understands your professional liability insurance needs, then Academic may be just the company you need. Member-owned, Academic is governed by physicians for physicians. Even Academic's Board is 100 percent comprised of faculty physicians and dentists, elected by Academic subscribers at each campus site.
What this means to you can be summed up in three words: governance and control. Control over your risk as teaching physicians. Control over how you manage risk. And most importantly, control over what is your most critical asset - your reputation.
back to topUniversity Clinical Chairs & Business Managers
There is nothing simple or easy about selecting a professional liability insurer for the physicians and other medical professionals in your department. Costs are inevitably a major concern, but so is quality of service and coverage.
By choosing Academic, you can provide meaningful protection for your faculty, with costs that reflect the reality of the exposures and loss experience of your clinical practice. We are member-owned, we understand that the teaching environment presents a different risk profile and that insurance prices should reflect that reality. For that reason, our costs are generally very competitive.
Cost is only part of the story, however. You want to be confident that you are providing the best possible protection as well. Here again, our experience as academic physicians helps create a powerful bond with the close-knit community we insure. We understand the mission of clinical education and the value of reputation, both for the individual physician and for the school. We know that insurance for teaching faculty can never be just an "off-the-shelf" product.
As a result, Academic is committed to making available the most reputable legal defense firms to represent our members. What's more, subscribers have a voice in how claims are managed and their ultimate disposition.
back to topVisiting Physicians Training in the U.S. from Foreign Countries
The U.S. legal and regulatory environment can be daunting to physicians who are in the country temporarily and faced with the challenge of securing professional liability insurance. Though there are general principles that apply to issuing such policies, each doctor's circumstances will be unique as to practice specialty, duration of stay, and other factors.
Academic has written policies for visiting physicians and understands how these elements may come into play when underwriting coverage. With our commitment to service, and willingness to develop tailored policies, we welcome inquiries from visiting medical and dental professionals.
back to topMedical School Physician Leaders & Administrators
Overseeing a major medical school teaching faculty is a challenging enough task without having to worry from year-to-year about the availability and pricing of professional liability insurance.
Member-owned Academic has been committed to the medical school teaching environment since we started doing business in New York State in 1990. Medical school teaching faculties are what we cover. We bring faculty understanding to the professional liability insurance marketplace.
Academic's Board is 100 percent comprised of faculty physicians and dentists, elected by Academic subscribers at each campus site. As a result, we are keenly aware of the critical issues you face, including the need for predictable pricing security and the ability to understand and manage risk. Our historically low loss ratios and stable premium costs are testimony to the success of this approach.
back to topInsurance Brokers & Agents
The Academic Group is expanding nationally through the establishment of the Risk Retention Group in Vermont. This, in turn, is creating significant opportunities for insurance brokers to learn more about Academic, and to introduce the company to teaching physicians, healthcare providers, and medical residents in your area.
If you're a broker or agent looking for an exciting new opportunity in professional liability insurance for medical faculty, think Academic.