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Winter Is Here
by Richard Weston, CIC
Winter has arrived and after Storm Kenan hits us tomorrow everyone will be re-learning how to drive on snowy, icy roads… no sudden turns, keep a safe distance, give yourself plenty of room to stop.
Picture this:
Your practice manager is on the way to buy some emergency copier paper at Staples and is in a hurry, driving just beyond what the road condition will allow. His cellphone beeps and he looks away for a moment to see who it is. When he looks back up, he sees someone crossing the street in front of him. He jams on the brakes, but it’s too late… the car hits the pedestrian very hard, and causes a serious head injury that leaves the pedestrian permanently, totally disabled. Prior to the accident, the victim was a partner at a large downtown law firm, earning almost $1M/year. Your office manager gets sued for millions by the victim’s spouse, and law firm; and your practice gets named in the suit too.
Are you covered?
Before a disaster happens, we recommend that you have your insurance agent review your current Office Insurance or Commercial Auto Insurance policies to ensure proper coverage is in place.
Does your policy cover your practice if employees using their own vehicle to run errands for your business? What protections does your practice have if the employee causes damage to someone else’s property, and or injury to others as a result of a terrible accident on company business?
Will the policy even pay your legal defense costs should you be sued? It is important to know the limitations. The time to find out if you’re under-insured is before something like this happens, not after disaster strikes.
Richard Weston, CIC, is Operations Manager at PIAM and has been with the company since 2002. He has been in the commercial insurance sector since 1988 and can assist with a wide range of insurance issues that physician practices face. If you have questions about insurance, or would like Richard to do a full review of your insurance policies and exposures, he can be reached at 781 434-7390 or by email at rweston@mms.org.
