The borough assembly held a short special meeting last Friday night, Jan. 11. The purpose of the meeting was to approve of two tail insurance policies for the Wrangell Medical Center.
Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen explained that tail insurance is designed to cover something that happened in the past, but had consequences that only become apparent in the future.
“So rather than insuring operations that ‘are’, you’re insuring things that occurred in the past,” she said. “So if someone should file a claim against operations, or a decision, or a procedure or something that was done at the hospital when it was open previously, tail insurance covers those items … When a child is born at a hospital, there are all sorts of things that can go wrong with childbirth that present later on. So the professional liability insurance here covers the hospital if that person should come back when they’re 25 and say ‘I’m having a problem because the cord got wrapped around my neck when I was born at Wrangell Medical Center 25 years ago.’”
The assembly approved of two tail insurance policies. The first was a five-year policy with RSUI Indemnity Company in the amount of a total of $53,554. This policy, according to a summary statement attached to the meeting’s agenda, protects the liability of senior hospital staff and members of the board of directors. The second was a continuous professional liability policy with National Fire & Marine Insurance, protecting the liability of hospital operations, for a one-time payment of $60,280.
During the meeting, the assembly also adopted a resolution to amend the FY 2019 budget by accepting $136,382.96 in revenue from Wrangell Medical Center transfer activities.
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