Malpractice Insurance

The State of Florida mandates liability insurance for all Advanced Practice Nurses (APN's). This group includes the Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), and the Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS). Advanced Practice Nurses who treat patients outside their work settings also need individual insurance policies, even if they are already covered under their hospital, university, institutional employer, or practice policy. If the APN doesn’t carry an individual policy than any acts that are done outside their primary work setting will not be covered.

Make sure that the liability insurance covers the APN’s practice for which certification and licensure exist.  In other words if you are licensed in Family Practice then you need to carry a Family Practice policy, not an adult policy.

There are two types of malpractice insurance offered in Florida:

1.      Claims Made Policy

2.      Occurrence Based Policy

Claims Made Policy: 

Is a professional liability policy that is purchased and covers ANY claim while the APN continues to practice and carry that policy.  If the policy is cancelled when the APN leaves the profession, retires, or is no longer required to possess active liability insurance, the APN must continue to keep the insurance policy active in order to receive coverage for incidents that may have happened in the past years. This policy can be extended by purchasing a "tail" policy to protect your past practice during that time period, otherwise there is no coverage. This policy can be extremely costly, at an unsuitable time.

If this type of policy interests you, please visit www.nso.com or www.spnrrg.com

Occurrence Based Policy: 

Is a professional liability policy that is purchased and covers ANY claim that occurred while the APN was insured.  So, no tail coverage is required.  APNs should carry this type of coverage.

If this type of policy interests you, please visit www.spnrrg.com