Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019 - 33

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Medical Malpractice Insurance-Tail Coverage
Whether or not you maintain medical malpractice insurance
depends on your license status.
Pennsylvania requires tail coverage for physicians who cancel their
claims-made coverage. The tail covers losses and expenses occurring
during a claims-made coverage period. The one-time fee paid for
the tail coverage would protect the physician indefinitely for any
claim made after the cancellation, termination, or non-renewal of
the claims-made coverage in Pennsylvania.
Your malpractice carrier is required to offer tail coverage upon
cancellation, termination, or non-renewal of claims-made coverage.
Physicians must purchase tail coverage to be in compliance with
state law, but they are not required to purchase it from their current
malpractice insurance provider, You can shop around for alternative
malpractice carriers. You should contact your medical malpractice
provider or broker for additional details.

The physician or practice that maintains the medical records is
generally considered the owner of the records. However, in a hospital setting, a patient's medical records are owned by the hospital.
Nevertheless, although patients do not own their medical records
per se, patients do have a right to view and copy their records at
their request.
So what should I do about retiring now?
Written notice of your impending retirement should be provided
to all of your patients. This notice should include the date of your
retirement and information on how patients can obtain copies of
their medical records or authorize transfer of their records to a
new physician.
If you are part of a group practice, the group may retain your
records. However, the practice must provide patients with copies
of their records or have records transferred to a patient's newly
chosen physician upon a patient's request for such.

If you were a solo practitioner, you may choose to safely store
the records themselves. However, if you sold your practice or paMedical Records - Now What
tient records will be stored by another practice, hospital, or other
Medical records must be retained in compliance with Penn- custodian, this information should also be provided to patients.
sylvania law regardless of whether the physician who created the Patients must be informed on the location of their records, and
records retires, passes away, or closes their practice.
how they can access them.
In Pennsylvania, physicians must retain an adult patient's
medical records for at least seven years from the last date of service.
Requirements differ slightly for minor patients. The State Board of
Medicine requires MDs to retain a minor patient's medical records
for at least seven years after the last date of service or one year after
the patient's 18th birthday, whichever is longer.

As always, if you have questions about any of the information,
please reach out to PCMS staff at 215-563-5343. *

The State Board of Osteopathic Medicine requires DOs
to retain a minor patient's medical records for at least
seven years after the last date of service or two years after
the patient's 18th birthday, again whichever is longer.

Fall/Winter 2019 : Philadelphia Medicine 33

Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019