Frequently Asked Questions

Sure, talking about heroes might seem silly when we’re dealing with insurance, but it gets to the core of some really important ideas. 

Your insured is purchasing liability insurance to help protect them during the worst day of their life. The service you provide them really will go on to save the day, and you’ll be the first person they thank. Good agents really are heroes to their clients.

As for ethics, we made it a point since our inception to draw a line in the sand over what we consider to be ethical or unethical behavior. Frankly, we found that overtly talking about ethics is the quickest way to encourage agents to consider if their other wholesalers are treating them properly, while simultaneously weeding out unethical agents who might try to employ our services. We’re not interested in working with bad agents any more than you’re interested in working with bad wholesalers. Just like you, if one somehow slips through the cracks, then we have to go through the trouble of firing them. 

The good news is that we can help get you the medical/healthcare professional liability insurance you need. However, we cannot sell you that insurance directly. Simply fill out our contact form and we will either work with your existing insurance agent or help you to find a new, Ethos-approved agent to serve this and any future needs you may have.

If it's healthcare, we can do it. We would refer you to each service page to see which lines are available for different insureds.

We firmly believe that specialization and expertise play a major role in the quality of service that we provide. As such, we have organized our team so that each person is exclusively focused on healthcare professional liability.

With that said, we have continued to hear the call of our agents and recognize there are additional fields of professional liability that need an Ethos level of expertise. We may very well offer additional departments in the future but refuse to do so until we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can provide you with service up to our standards.

We were fortunate that we had begun to lay the groundwork for remote employees in the months prior to the covid-19 pandemic, so once the time came it was easy to flip the switch. Since transitioning to a predominantly remote workplace we have since made a conscious effort in our hiring process to bring team members on board across the country from East to West, North to South. Whatever you need, an Ethos employee is there when you need help.

Ethos works with all the key carriers specialized in the healthcare liability marketplace. However, there are always other carriers that may have an appetite for healthcare accounts but struggle to compete with more specialized carriers. When new carriers enter the healthcare liability arena, we are careful to vet them out and add them if they are likely to provide a benefit for our customers.

Every submission should include an application and no fewer than 5 years of loss/claims history (aka: loss runs). There are many specialized applications or supplemental applications that address the particular details of certain classes of business. Additional info may also be necessary to complete a submission: CVs (Curriculum Vitae); financials; copies of contracts and licenses, to name a few.

This can vary by carrier, but the guiding principle is that providers are rated based on their medical specialty. Medical facilities are rated on one or more countable metrics of performance, such as the number of surgeries, outpatient visits, or patient encounters. Of course, there are many other underwriting factors that can influence the rate or cost per policy.

There are 8 states that utilize Patient Compensation Fund (PCF) laws: IN, KS, LA, PA, NE, NM, SC & WI. Each state’s PCF rules differ. Some PCF require mandatory participation, others are voluntary. Where allowed by law, Ethos can help to place your PCF-eligible policy and often assist with the PCF filings, too.

The insurance needs for clinical research organizations (CROs) vary depending on the scope of the work they are providing. In some cases, a CRO will not only be producing work for a contracting sponsor but will also be engaged in direct contact with patients while administering medical services. These distinctions help define the needs of a particular client and help match an appropriate product to meet all the needs of a CRO.

For anyone who would like to learn more, we would like to invite you to read our three-part series on the subject.

• 3 Common Insurance Issues for Healthcare Providers Engaged In Clinical Research Services
• Clinical Research Services and E&O: What You Need to Know
• Clinical Research Organizations (CRO): Important Liability Insurance Issues

Just like you, a big part of our business comes down to managing our relationship with carriers. Whatever their reason, some of our carrier partners have asked us not to list our current commission agreements on our website.

We believe that your needs come first, so while we do not list carriers' names next to their commission schedule on the site we welcome you to contact us directly if there is a carrier you have a question about. Further, we will always provide you with commission information for each carrier in your marketing report.