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Malpractice Insurance
EXPERT ADVICE

Employer Liability vs. Workers’ Comp:
MEDICAL DIVISION
Know The Difference?

What is Financial PlanningWha t is Financial Plaanning
Confusion can reign when it involves Conventional wisdom has always taught us that
to Coastal W ealth?
Helping you achieve employers trying to determine if something politics, religion, and sex are topics we should
your goals falls under their workers’ compensation cov- refrain from discussing at work. Given the current
erage or their employer liability coverage. political atmosphere in this country, as well as other
with accoun tability!
The fact is, many employers/medical prac- hot-button issues and the explosion of social media,
tices do not even carry employer liability employers should be mindful of these issues and
insurance, otherwise known as EPLI. In would be well-advised to implement policies to pre-
Florida, any non-construction employer with vent or reduce these problems. It may be time to
four (4) or more employees is required by law update the employee handbook.
to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ compensation is fairly simple and
There is no requirement for employers to straightforward, with the exception of allowing
carry EPLI. attorneys into the system that was set up to be “no-
Employer liability insurance is becoming fault” and designed to compensate employees
ever more important for all businesses, since BY TOM MURPHY regardless of fault involving an injury on the job.
we have been seeing a rapid increase in com- Workers’ compensation pays for all reasonable
plaints and claims in the world of medical medical bills, as well as lost time, with the goal of
practices in the past two years and with the recently formed returning the injured employee back to work at the earliest
#MeToo movement. This, combined with the rise of social opportunity.
media, has created the perfect storm for the increase in employ-
er liability claims. The most prevalent claims currently being
experienced are employer retaliation, sexual harassment, and
(954) 625-1515
WWW . CASEYSJOHNSON C . OM discrimination.
The aforementioned issues and many others fall under
employer liability and could be serious enough to lead to an

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) com-
i si
d plaint or a lawsuit, or both. In 2017, almost 6,700 sexual
ci al p gr d harassment complaints resulted in a recovery of almost $46 mil- Tom Murphy is a workers’ compensation and medical malpractice
r a
lion from employers to the EEOC, an increase of almost 15% insurance specialist agent with the firm of Danna-Gracey, Inc. in
n o M
f a a dc from 2016, and the numbers keep growing. This does not downtown Delray Beach. He can be reached at (561) 276-3553 or
r r r esenntaaattaatn t t t ecu
ecuc
rvivvi vici ice d t u e o include personal claims and lawsuits, which cost employers far (800) 966-2120 or Murphy@dannagracey.com.
M . S
more in defense and payments.

4 December 2018 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News