Midwife Liability Insurance

A certified nurse midwife, sometimes referred to as a CNM or simply a nurse midwife, is an advanced-practice registered nurse who specializes in women's reproductive health and childbirth. They not only attend to women during pregnancy, childbirth, and post-birth but are also responsible for preventive women's health maintenance.

Midwives serve a unique and essential purpose in women’s healthcare. In this unique position, midwives can also be the target of malpractice claims, just like any other healthcare provider.

If you’re a midwife, you likely need midwife liability insurance to protect your practice and career if something goes wrong during a birth or any type of service you provide. A local independent insurance agent can help you find all the midwife liability insurance you need. Until then, here's a closer look at midwife liability insurance and why it's necessary.

What Is Midwife Liability Insurance?

Midwives care for women who desire unique professional attention, including a natural birthing experience and attention to medical needs in a compassionate and empathetic environment. The relationship between a midwife and a patient is special, creating a closeness and confidence that may not exist in a physician-patient relationship. Unfortunately, no matter how competent and compassionate your services are or how good your relationship with your patients is, you can be sued.

Midwife liability insurance, also sometimes called midwife malpractice insurance, is a special form of professional liability insurance that helps protect against the cost of lawsuits stemming from the professional services or advice you provide. For example, if your services accidentally lead to unnecessary harm to a woman during a natural birth or you offer advice to a prospective client during a consultation that leads to a loss, you could be sued.

Midwife liability insurance offers coverage for legal expenses and financial compensation you must pay to clients for losses resulting from your actual or alleged wrongful acts or those of another person for whom you are legally responsible.

Why Do Midwives Need Professional Liability Insurance?

Midwives provide initial and ongoing assessments, diagnosis, and treatment; they conduct physical examinations; prescribe medications; admit, manage, and discharge patients; order and interpret laboratory and diagnostic tests; and order the use of medical devices.

Accidents and mistakes that cause harm to a client can occur while performing any of these services, which may result in a hefty lawsuit. Without the proper coverage, you could have to pay tens of thousands of dollars or more in settlement expenses and potentially be forced to close your practice due to financial strain.

Even if your coverage is offered through an employer, a facility, or as an extension of a physician’s policy, you likely still need your own policy. Your employer’s malpractice insurance is probably focused on protecting the group or the primary physician. It likely has gaps that could leave you financially devastated if you’re sued for malpractice.

You likely need your own policy because of the following:

• If you change jobs, the previous employer’s malpractice insurance may not cover you for claims made after you leave, even if the incident happened while you were still an employee.
• Your employer’s malpractice insurance coverage limits may be insufficient to cover everyone named in a malpractice suit.
• Employer coverage may not cover you for individual activities outside of the practice, e.g., if you moonlight or offer healthcare services outside of the practice as an independent contractor.

It makes sense to purchase your own midwife professional liability insurance to ensure your protection in all circumstances and for the long term. Further, in certain states, midwives are required by law to have midwife malpractice insurance.

What Does Midwife Malpractice Insurance Cover?

Midwife liability insurance can cover many of the expenses stemming from lawsuits filed against you by clients and other third parties. These can include:

• The cost of medical damages to your patients
• The cost of punitive and compensatory damages
• The cost of arbitration and settlement
• Defense costs, including attorney and court expenses

Without midwife malpractice insurance, just one hefty lawsuit could lead to serious financial complications for you and your business, up to and including bankruptcy. Ask a local independent insurance agent to help you get the protection you need.

Common Claims Against Midwives

Pregnancy comes with risks not only to the mother and child but also to the midwife. Midwives may be accused of many potential professional errors and omissions that require proper protection. These include adverse birth outcomes, aftercare advice that leads to harm, and other mistakes or oversights that negatively impact a patient.

A midwife professional liability policy will provide coverage for actual or alleged errors, omissions, negligence, breach of duty, misleading statements, and similar claims resulting from the performance or non-performance of professional services. CNMs and CMs need to work closely with an insurance agent to make sure their policy fits their needs.

What's Not Covered by Midwife Liability Insurance?

Midwife professional liability insurance typically excludes coverage for negligence due to illegal conduct, sexual improprieties, factual misrepresentations on insurance applications, hospital or lab administration, or medical records alteration. Intentional or malicious acts against others are also not covered. Be sure to ask your independent insurance agent to review your specific policy's exclusions with you.

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What Kind of Midwife Liability Insurance Should You Buy?

You can purchase midwife liability insurance with dollar limits that are appropriate for you. Most policies specify the following.

• An individual limit (the most that will be paid for any one claim)
• An aggregate limit (the most that will be paid in any policy year for all claims)

So, if your policy has limits of $1,000,000/$3,000,000, this means it will pay a maximum of $1 million per claim and $3 million for all claims during a policy term. You can also typically choose between the following types of policies:

• Claims-made policies: This coverage provides reimbursement only if the service is provided and the claim is made while the policy is in force. Some policies also include "tail" coverage, which extends protection for a certain amount of time, such as five years, after the policy's end date.
• Occurrence policies: This coverage provides reimbursement if the service is performed while the policy is in force, regardless of when the claim gets filed.
• Modified occurrence policies: Also called tail coverage, these policies combine aspects of occurrence coverage and claims-made coverage. Tail coverage extends a policy's protection after its term ends. Retiring midwives often purchase tail coverage to protect themselves even after they're no longer working. Once this additional amount of coverage has expired, you may purchase unlimited tail coverage.

Your independent insurance agent can help recommend the right kind of midwife professional liability insurance or midwife malpractice insurance for you and your business.

How Much Does Midwife Professional Liability Insurance Cost?

Your employer may pay for some or all of the cost of your midwife liability insurance. You may be able to purchase coverage on your own and be reimbursed by your employers. The cost of midwife professional liability insurance can vary considerably but may range up to $6,000 on the high end.

Your policy's cost can depend on the state in which you practice, your years of experience, the setting in which you practice (e.g., private practice, birthing center, etc.), the specific services you offer, and the coverage limits you choose. Also, if you work in a group practice, you may pay less for coverage. A local independent insurance agent can help you find affordable midwife malpractice insurance in your area.

The Benefits of an Independent Insurance Agent

When it comes to helping insurance customers find the absolute best midwife malpractice coverage, no one’s better equipped to help than an independent insurance agent. Independent insurance agents search through multiple carriers to find providers who sell midwife professional liability insurance, deliver quotes from a number of different sources, and help you walk through them all to find the best blend of coverage and cost.