ProAssurance Group: 2024 Medical Malpractice Insurance Review

ProAssurance Group is rated “A+” (Superior) by A.M. Best. The company has also been recognized as a Ward’s 50 Top Performer every year since 2007.

Regardless of your speciality or career stage, medical malpractice insurance is a must for doctors.

The goal of our company reviews is simple. We want to offer an unbiased analysis of the companies we help you comparison shop at. In doing so, we hope to share the industry expertise and connections that fuel our technology.

Let’s get started with an industry titan: ProAssurance Group.

About ProAssurance Group

ProAssurance Group is a diversified insurance coverage network with various subsidiaries and divisions. Those divisions include the following companies that offer malpractice insurance:

• ProAssurance Indemnity Company, Inc.
• ProAssurance Casualty Company.
• Podiatry Insurance Company of America (PICA).
• ProAssurance Specialty Insurance Company, Inc. (This is its excess and surplus lines carrier.

Additional subsidiaries under the ProAssurance umbrella include:

• ProAssurance American Mutual.
• Medmarc Casualty Insurance Company and Noetic Specialty Insurance Company. (Both provide product liability coverage for medical technology and life sciences firms.)
• Eastern Alliance Insurance Group, which offers workers compensation insurance.

The history of ProAssurance

ProAssurance was formed by a group of physicians in Alabama in 1976. The goal of Mutual Assurance (its original name) was to fill the void left after a key liability insurance carrier abandoned the market. Another company formed that year, Medical Defense Associates, is also part of the ProAssurance lineage.

In 1985, Mutual Assurance became the first physician-founded company to insure hospitals and facilities. Six years later, it demutualized to become a publicly traded stock company. Once again, it was the first of doctor-led company to do so.

The company was renamed MAIC Holdings in 1995 to reflect its growing number of subsidiaries and scope of operations. Two years later, MAIC was renamed Medical Assurance, Inc.

In 2001, Medical Assurance merged with a company called Professionals Group to form ProAssurance Corporation. Since then, ProAssurance has made a number of acquisitions and expanded into multiple lines of insurance coverage.

The financial strength of ProAssurance

ProAssurance Group is rated “A+” (Superior) by A.M. Best. This includes ProAssurance Indemnity Company, Inc., ProAssurance Casualty Company, ProAssurance Specialty Insurance Company, and ProAssurance American Mutual.

Other ProAssurance companies are rated “A” (Excellent) by A.M. Best. The company has also been recognized as a Ward’s 50 Top Performer every year since 2007.

At the end of 2017, ProAssurance Corp. held approximately $4.9 billion in assets. The company wrote $764 million in net premium in 2017.

The company’s stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PRA. As of June 21, 2018, the company had a market capitalization of $1.95 billion. Market capitalization is a measure of a company’s value by multiplying the total outstanding shares by the stock value per share. Its first-quarter 2018 operating revenue was $211.9 million, up 1.9 percent from the previous year.

Medical malpractice insurance overview

ProAssurance coverage options include:

• Health care systems, hospitals, and clinics.
• Physicians, including podiatry, dental, and chiropractic specialties.
• Allied health care pros and facilities.
• Other health care liability insurance and services.

Depending on the size of your risk, ProAssurance may offer:

• Traditional approaches. (First-dollar coverage, deductible options, and excess and surplus lines of coverage).
• Alternative risk programs. (Turnkey captive solution, complex risk valuation solutions, and a loss portfolio transfer program.)
• Risk sharing programs for potential rewards.

Policy features and benefits

ProAssurance offers claims-made policies with automatic tail coverage for death or disability. Its policyholders receive tail coverage at full retirement if they have five years of continuous coverage.

The company’s Excess and Surplus (E&S) Line offers coverage for “diverse needs,” which includes:

• Telemedicine.
• Virtual medicine.
• Locum tenens.
• Emergency medicine.
• Multi-state.
• Multi-specialty.
• Risk sharing.

Its medical liability coverage features cybersecurity protection at no additional charge. This includes:

• Security and privacy liability for losses and defense costs in a data breach.
• Benefits to cover the regulatory defense costs and penalties of security and privacy breaches.
• Network asset protection covering you for the loss of digital assets and failure of computer systems.
• Cyber terrorism and extortion.
• Loss of revenue resulting from the adverse publicity of a cybersecurity incident.

ProAssurance also offers a number of risk resource tools that include:

• Access to advisors.
• On-site risk resource assessments.
• Seminars and in-service training.
• Newsletters, publications, and online tools and resources.
• Re-entry program designed to help health care pros transition back into the standard market.

Key takeaways

When it comes to medical malpractice insurance, ProAssurance is among the best of the best. But that doesn’t mean they are the right fit for every doctor. In assessing your malpractice insurance options, it’s crucial that you understand:

• The companies that make up ProAssurance Group.
• ProAssurance’s history and enduring financial strength.
• The ins-and-outs of its medical malpractice insurance coverage.

Ready to get malpractice coverage? Get started comparison shopping here.