Insurance Tips for Haiti Volunteers^*

If an orthopaedic surgeon is contemplating volunteering in Haiti, he or she should consider the following:

Health Insurance

It is not likely that the orthopaedic surgeon’s health insurance would be impacted as there is no health care system currently operating in Haiti capable of accepting and/or processing insurance benefits.

Life Insurance and Disability – Group Benefits

If an orthopaedic surgeon dies or becomes disabled as a result of volunteer work in Haiti, he/she would have coverage under most group life and disability insurance policies. The brokers with whom AAOS spoke strongly suggested that the orthopaedic surgeon contact the group life and/or disability insurance company prior to leaving to complete a “foreign risk endorsement” and to confirm that coverage remains in place.

Life Insurance and Disability – Individual Policies

An orthopaedic surgeon’s individual life and disability insurance policies would probably not be impacted by volunteer service in a disaster area. However, be aware that service of this type may impact the physician’s ability to obtain life and/or disability insurance in the future, or increase the rate of premiums that must be paid in order to obtain such insurance.

Medical Professional Liability Insurance

AAOS contacted several professional liability insurance carriers, including Illinois State Insurance Exchange and Medical Insurance Exchange of California. The majority of medical professional liability carriers concluded that: in the event a claim results from medical care provided by a policyholder while volunteering in Haiti, that orthopaedic surgeon would have coverage. Orthopaedic surgeons should contact the insurance company before leaving to provide notice of their service in a disaster area, or, as one underwriter explained, “to endorse the policy.”

However, one carrier contacted by AAOS, and licensed to sell insurance in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, would not provide a definitive statement on coverage in this situation. The underwriter explained that coverage extends only to the state in which the physician is “properly licensed” and for suits filed in any U.S. state, territory, possession or Canada. Because of this variance, every orthopaedic surgeon should contact his or her professional liability insurance company prior to leaving for an individual assessment of coverage and/or provide a policy endorsement, if necessary.

More information from AAOS Now: Medical liability in the developing world - Increasingly, the specter of medical liability threatens humanitarian missions…

Rev.02.03.10