Overview:

For retail brokers with a specialty healthcare or insured consumers looking for coverage, deciding on the necessary needs and coverages can be a daunting task.  Combine that with a lack of clarity in definitions, and you have a perfect storm.  Some insurers group miscellaneous healthcare facilities with allied health and some group allied health with social services.  Still other insurers group allied health and miscellaneous health with physicians.  To simplify, the best rule of thumb is to consider Healthcare Facilities as centers for care such as:

  • Ambulatory Surgery Centers
  • Medical Imaging Centers
  • Medical Labs
  • Kidney Dialysis Centers
  • Outpatient Clinics
  • Urgent Care
  • Mental Health Facilities
  • Addiction Treatment
  • Med Spas
  • Physical Rehabilitation

Allied Health would include providers such as:

  • Correctional Healthcare staffing firms
  • Mid-Level Providers
  • Therapists
  • Counselors
  • Durable Medical Equipment providers
  • Respiratory therapy and oxygen providers
  • Companion
  • Home Health
  • Hospice
  • Healthcare Staffing
  • Telehealth

Keep in mind that there are a number of overlapping classes of business, niche markets, and coverages that might make the above classifications seem overly simplistic.  However, this is a good starting point. 

For those looking to specialize, the market forecast for all healthcare facilities and providers includes rapidly changing reimbursement and regulatory requirements due to healthcare reform, new risks related to the scope of service shift, the aging of both the patient and the employee populations, new models of delivery including medical homes and accountable care organizations, high acquisition activities, and emerging risks related to electronic health records, cloud technology, data security, and Medicare and Medicaid recovery audits.  These are exciting times in healthcare for those who see challenges as opportunities. 

This class of business is underserved for risk management due to cost points.  A leader or great program in this class of business brings product and service superiority, production efficiency, and in some cases highly specialized consulting.