The world has been thrown a COVID-19 curveball and the healthcare system has been struggling to keep up. New modalities for care delivery are popping up everywhere and despite their ingenuity, must also continue to be effective, efficient, and safe, while being implemented at scale. Such new territory exposes major risks, including patient safety, public safety, and the safety of healthcare workers. New legislation is being drafted as we speak, providing shape to medical malpractice insurance and workers comp, while insurers are working to stay one step ahead of the pandemic.
Necessity is the mother of all invention and to date, 2020 has witnessed many new inventions: pop-up testing sites – as seen in parking lots across the nation – are functioning as critical triage efforts to stave off the existing hospital overwhelm; personal protective equipment is being repurposed, 3D-printed, and cobbled together from trash bags and goggles and whatever else can be made available; ventilators are being hacked to increase their efficacy; physicians and nurses who travel across state lines to help out are being flash trained on equipment that they’re not experienced with. There is no precedent for any of this other than to say, it’s the right thing to do. Yet even with a general, national consensus that the ends justify these means, many are predicting a legal aftermath fraught with complication.
In these treacherous waters, insurance organizations become beacons and safety nets for their hospital clients. The best way to support hospitals, doctors, nurses, and all their frontline staff is to cover them. “The last thing they need to be thinking abought right now is their medical malpractice,” says Margaret Nekic, CEO at Inspirien. Inspirien is ready to serve, doubling down in their effort to support hospitals in myriad unexpected ways. This includes being data aggregators, defining best practices, staying abreast of all new legislation and its implications, and acting as a trusted source so that hospitals can continue treating patients without missing a beat.
As large administrators of care, hospitals are in a unique position to implement new legislative protections quickly and at scale. This is particularly good news for all the unique use cases arising, from nurses, whose insurance must now extend beyond the hospital walls, to in-house daycare centers that are looking after healthcare worker’s children. Protections for healthcare workers and hospitals will continue to strengthen over time as our understanding of the pandemic becomes more nuanced.
In the meantime, all signs point to a hardening market. As such, there is no more critical time to begin thinking strategically about risk management. Inspirien likens it to a savings account for which risk can actually be a source of revenue for a hospital going forward. “We’re trying to look out for them in the future” continues Margaret. “This is a journey.”